THE GOOD CROWS 
HAPPY SHOP 




PATTEN BEARD 





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COPYRIGHT DEPOSE 



THE GOOD CROW'S 
HAPPY SHOP 




The Good Crow and his Mail Box 



THE GOOD CROW'S 
HAPPY SHOP 



BY 

PATTEN BEARD 

Avthor of "The Jolly Year," "Marjorie's Literary 

Dolls," "The Jolly Book of Boxcraft," 

11 The Bluebird's Garden," etc. 



THIRTEEN PICTURES OF HAPPY THINGS 
THAT WERE MADE BY THE CHILDREN IN 
THE SHOP OF THE GOOD CROW CAW CAW, 
DRAWN AND ARRANGED BY THE AUTHOR 
WITH MARGINAL BY MR. ARTHUR HULL 




THE PILGRIM PRESS 

BOSTON CHICAGO 



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Copyright 1917 
By PATTEN BEARD 



• *• • 

• • 

• • • 

••• 


THE PILGRIM PRESS 


K\..1 i. BOSTON 

SEP 19 1917 


kl.A473576 


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THIS BOOK OF THE HAPPY SHOP 

IS DEDICATED TO 

HENRY JARRETT AND CAW CAW. 

HIS GOOD PLAY 

CROW 




10NG time ago, the author of 
J this book played the crow 
play as a little girl, and when 
she grew up, she gave the crow 
play to Henry Jarrett. Now, 
Henry Jarrett and Patten Beard 
give this play to many other 
children. In doing this, they have 
had help from The Delineator, 
The Youth's Companion, The Pic- 
torial Review, and The Mother's 
Magazine. These have used some 
of the plays in this book. 



CONTENTS 

CHAPTER PAGE 

I The Good Crow axd Auxt Phoebe 1 

II The Happy Shop and the Magic Book - 13 

III The Paper Dolls Jimsi Made - - - 27 

IV The Toy Furniture ----- 39 

A' The Motion Picture Fun That the 

Crow Knew - - - - - - -51 

VI The Valentines of the Happy Shop - 69 

VII The Embroidery Patterns in the Magic 

Book -------- 79 

VIII The Scrapbooks Crow Told About - 95 

IX The Pin-wheels, Birds, Butterflies - 107 

X The May Baskets - - - - - - 121 

XI How the Magic Book Helped at School 131 

XII The Gifts That They Made in the 

Happy Shop - - - - - - -141 

XIII The Christmas-Tree That They Made 

in the Happy Shop - - - - - 153 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 

The Good Crow axd His Mail Box - - Frontispiece 

PAGE 

The Magic Book of the Good Crow's Happy Shop 
Was a Big Sample Book of Wall Paper 22 

The Paper Dolls That Were Cut from Magazines 
axd Whose Clothes Were Made from Wall Paper 32 

Paper Cutting Diagram I ------ 43 

The Paper Doll Furniture That Was Cut From 

Cardboard and Upholstered with Wall Paper - 45 

The Motion Pictures That Were Cut from Wall 
Paper ----------57 

The Valentines and Cards That Were Made Out 

of Wall Paper --------71 

Embroidery Patterns and Stencil Designs That 
Were Found in Wall Paper ----- 84 

The Scrapbooks That the Children Made with 
Wall Paper Covers ------- 103 

Paper Cutting Diagram II - - - - - 113 

The Bird, the Butterflies and the Pin-wheels 
That Were Made Out of Wall Paper - - - 117 

The May Baskets and the Flower-Pot Coyer 
That Were Made of Wall Paper - 127 

Here Are School Books with Pretty Covers Made 
to Keep Them Clean ------ 133 

Some Desk Fittings That Were Made with Wall 

Paper ---------- 147 

The Ciiki>tmas-Tree Decorations That Were Made 
of Wall Paper -------- 161 



THE GOOD CROW'S 
HAPPY SHOP 



CHAPTER I 

The Good Crow and Aunt Phoebe 

OXCE a year, Aunt Phoebe came to visit 
in the city at Jimsi's house. Aunt 
Phoebe was Mother's best friend. 
Jimsi and Henry and baby Katherine had 
known her ever so long. They could not re- 
member the time when they did not know 
Aunt Phoebe. Probably the time dated back 
to the age of rattles and squeaky rubber dolls 
when the children were so small that they 
knew nothing at all about Aunt Phoebe's 
Good Crow, Caw Caw. 

You see, Aunt Phoebe was a "play aunt." 
She did not really belong to the family as 
everyday aunts and uncles do. She began by 
playing she was an aunt and almost every- 
thing that she did was either make-believe or 
play or something equally jolly. And Aunt 



2 THE GOOD CROW S HAPPY SHOP 

Phoebe's Good Crow Caw Caw was a play 
too. It was a happy make-believe that had 
grown up with Jimsi and Henry and Rath- 
er ine. 

Just how the play about the Good Crow 
started, nobody was ever able to tell. Even 
Aunt Phoebe herself could not say. But the 
make-believe was that Aunt Phoebe knew of 
a wonderfully delightful bird who was big and 
black and who liked nothing better than to do 
nice things for boys and girls. 

Jimsi and Henry and Katherine knew well 
that all this was a lovely pretend. One might 
believe in it as one believed in fairies or fairy 
tales that one knows are not at all true — and 
yet fun to imagine. The Good Crow was a 
lovely pretend. 

Everybody who knew Jimsi and Henry and 
Katherine, knew about Caw Caw. He ap- 
peared most frequently when the great visit of 
the year fell due and when the expressman 
had brought in Aunt Phoebe's trunk and 
taken the strap off. Then Aunt Phoebe 
would say, "Oh, Jimsi, Caw Caw sent you a 
present. He sent one to Henry and Kather- 
ine too. I must get it out of my trunk! 
Come! Let's see what it is!" 



AUNT PHOEBE 



Then Jimsi and Henry and Katherine would 
laugh and begin to play the play of Caw Caw 
Crow that would last as long as Aunt Phoebe 
stayed at their home — no, longer sometimes 
for the Good Crow often wrote little letters 
to the children, just for fun. 

The presents that came from Caw Caw in 
Aunt Phoebe's trunk were not very big pres- 
ents; they were boxes of crayons or paints or 
things like scissors and tools to make things. 
Sometimes there would be a game or a ball 
or a very nice toy or transfer pictures. The 
things that Caw Caw Crow sent the children 
were mostly things to do. One can always 
find a use for scissors or paints or crayons and 
things to do, you know. 

Maybe, when the children were little, he 
had begun with giving them boxes of blocks. 
Xow that Jimsi was eleven and Henry nine 
and Katherine four, Aunt Phoebe's crow sent 
them interesting things — not blocks or rubber 
dolls. He gave them each a plasticine outfit 
once. Another time he sent them all paint- 
ing-books. He gave them something to do 
with their brains and their fingers. That is 
the best kind of play, don't you think so? 

Well, all the time Aunt Phoebe was at the 



4 THE GOOD CROWS HAPPY SHOP 

house in the city, her crow did jolly things 
for the children. He never really appeared. 
Jimsi and Henry and Katherine never saw 
him. He was a lovely pretend like Santa 
Claus. Aunt Phoebe, who knew more than 
anybody else did about Caw Caw, declared that 
he spent most of his time in the Santa Claus 
Land and that he flew only now and then to 
the home of Jimsi and Henry and Katherine 
when Aunt Phoebe was visiting there. He 
sometimes came at night when the children 
were sound asleep — exactly as Santa Claus 
comes. He flew in at the window and very, 
very often he left wee little letters under the 
children's pillows. Maybe he left only a lol- 
lipop or a stick of peppermint candy. One 
never knew when one went to bed promptly 
and cheerfully what would be under one's pil- 
low ! That was the fun of the play ! There 
was mystery about it. It made fairyland a 
real everyday-come-true fun! 

Some days, if Jimsi or Henry or Katherine 
had been naughty, there would be a little crow 
letter that would say: 

"Dear Little Friend: 

I was flying by the window when you were 
so horrid and spunky. I don't like the 



AUNT PHOEBE O 

children who are horrid and spunky. I hope 
you'll be different to-morrow. 

Good-bye, 

Crow." 

After this kind of letter one felt more than 
ever ashamed. 

Maybe the Good Crow would put a differ- 
ent sort of letter under the pillow : 

" Dear Little Friend: 

It made me glad to see what you did to- 
day. I like children who eat what is set 
before them at the table. I send you a 
lollipop as a reward of merit. Happy dreams. 

Good-bye, 

Crow.''' 

One might come home from school and find 
that Aunt Phoebe's crow had flown in at 
Aunt Phoebe's window during school hours 
to leave tickets to go to a special children's 
performance of Alice in Wonderland to be 
on Saturday afternoon. Oh, the crow was 
always doing things that were happy. And, 
you know, Aunt Phoebe kept him fully in- 
formed as to what the children liked best. 
She knew. 

Mother and Daddy and Aunt Phoebe all 
liked the crow. Indeed, strange to relate, 
sometimes when Aunt Phoebe was visiting 



O THE GOOD CROW S HAPPY SHOP 

and Mother happened to say that she had ad- 
mired a certain kind of pretty plant that she 
had seen in a window down-town, the crow 
brought the plant and set it in the middle of 
the dining-room table next day! He left a 
card with it, of course. The card said, "With 
love from the children's Crow." (Of course, a 
real crow couldn't have carried the things that 
Caw Caw did. Being a play crow and just 
pretend, he could bring almost anything.) 

Oh, I tell you it was jolly! Everybody in 
the house crowed with laughter over Aunt 
Phoebe's Caw Caw. He made jokes; he sent 
funny pictures cut from magazines; he wrote 
rhymes and verses that made Mother and 
Daddy and Jimsi and Henry and Katherine 
— and even Aunt Phoebe herself — just double 
up and laugh. One day he left each of the 
children a big black feather. The feathers 
were done up in reams and reams of tissue 
paper. You'd have thought there were BIG 
presents in the parcels that were waiting on 
the hall table till Jimsi and Henry came home 
from school! And then after unrolling and 
unrolling and unrolling and unrolling out 
dropped the black feathers. They looked as 
if somebody had found them in the feather 



AT XT PHOEBE 



duster but they were labeled, "From Caw 
Caw's wing, with love. Keep to remember 
me. 

Oh, Aunt Phoebe's visits were such good 
fun and Caw Caw Crow was so jolly! It was 
always hard to say good-bye after the two 
weeks or the month had passed. Henry kept 
all his crow-treasures — except the eatable ones 
and those like Alice in Wonderland entertain- 
ment tickets. He put them in a drawer with 
his letters. Jimsi kept hers in a box. As for 
Katherine, she was still interested in blocks 
and squeaky dolls made of rubber. Mother 
kept Katherine's crow letters till Katherine 
should grow up to enjoy them all over again 
some day. 

Well, when Aunt Phoebe had gone, the 
Good Crow play usually stopped unless 
Mother kept it up or Jimsi or Henry or maybe 
Daddy tried it. But the crow was never as 
entertaining as when Aunt Phoebe was 
around. 

Once upon a time, Jimsi got sick. She was 
really frightfully sick — sick for a long, long 
time. She had the doctor and then she began 
to get well slowly. At this time, almost every 
dav in the mail would come a letter from Aunt 



8 THE GOOD CROWS HAPPY SHOP 

Phoebe's Crow telling Jimsi something nice 
to play in bed. Some days a postal card would 
come. Some days a pretty book. Some days 
a bit of doll-sewing. But the very nicest 
thing of all came when Jimsi was well enough 
to go out-doors again and not well enough to 
go back to school. It was a crow letter and 
it came with a postmark of the town where 
Aunt Phoebe lived on it. This is what the 
letter said. (It was written on very wee blue 
notepaper and written in the tiny . handwrit- 
ing that Aunt Phoebe's Good Crow usually 
liked.) 

"Dearest Jimsi: 

Do you think that your precious Mother 
would let you come to spend some time in 
the country with your Aunt Phoebe? ' She'd 
be very careful to see that you wore rubbers 
and didn't take cold. She'll see you take 
your bad medicine and have a peppermint 
afterwards to take the taste away. 

I hope you can come because Aunt Phoebe 
wants to see you, and I want you to play in 
my Happy Shop. 

Good-bye, 

Caw Caw Crow." 

Oh, oh, oh! Hooray! 

"Mumsey, I may go, mayn't I?" pleaded 
Jimsi. "Oh, I never was at Aunt Phoebe's! 
I'll be good; I'll go to bed early and I'll try 



AUNT PHOEBE y 

not to read too much; I'll take my horrid 
medicine and I'll never, never forget to wear 
overshoes !" 

"I want to go too," urged Henry. "I want 
to go too!" 

"Me too!" echoed baby Katherine. "Me 
too!" 

"Hush!" cried Mother; "I'll have to ask 
Daddy, Jimsi dear. We'll see what the doctor 
thinks of it. Maybe Aunt Phoebe's house is 
the best place a little girl could grow well and 
strong in. Maybe you can go — but I can't 
promise; we'll see." 

All day long Jimsi went about the house 
wondering whether she was going to be al- 
lowed to go to Aunt Phoebe's. She and 
Henry talked about it. "What do you sup- 
pose the crow's Happy Shop is?" they asked 
each other. 

"It's something ever so nice if it's the crow," 
declared Jimsi. "Maybe it's a store where 
the crow buys things." 

"It might be the place where he makes 
things," Henry suggested. "Shops are some- 
times places where things are made." 

All day long they talked about it. After 
the doctor had come and gone and when 



10 THE GOOD CROW'S HAPPY SHOP 

Daddy reached home after business, when the 
tea table things were cleared away and Jimsi 
and Henry and Mother and Daddy sat about 
the lamp in the living-room, they talked about 
the good crow and the Happy Shop some 
more. It was decided that day after to-mor- 
row, Jimsi should really go to visit Aunt 
Phoebe and find out what a Happy Shop 
was! 

Oh, oh, oh! Hooray! Three cheers for 
Aunt Phoebe and the Good Crow! Hip-hip- 
hoorah! Hip-hip-hoorah ! Hip -hip -ho or ah! 

That night Jimsi was very happy. She fell 
asleep to dream of a big black crow who was 
sitting in a queer little store inside an odd 
house that was like the White Rabbit's home 
in Alice in Wonderland. Of course Jimsi 
had never seen the crow face to face before 
but the dream seemed delightfully real and 
funny. She told Daddy and Mother about it 
in the morning, and Henry declared that 
dreams were never true and that, of course, 
Jimsi wouldn't see the crow at Aunt Phoebe's 
because the crow was all make-believe and 
there wasnt any. "We just pretend there is 
a crow," he said. "It's a kind of game. The 
Happy Shop is prob-ab-ly — (the word is 



AUNT PHOEBE 11 

quite a long one for nine years old) — prob- 
ab-ly another nice new play of Aunt Phoebe's. 
There won't be any real crow there, Jimsi!" 

"Oh, I know," smiled Jimsi. "But it will 
be a splendid fun of some kind. I can't wait 
to find out what it is. When I find out, I'll 
write home all about it." 

Really everybody was as interested to know 
what The Happy Shop really was as Jimsi. 
Poor Henry had to go off to school. Daddy 
went to his office downtown. Only Mother 
and Jimsi were left to speculate upon the sub- 
ject that day. It was a busy day too for Jimsi 
had to get ready to go to Aunt Phoebe's for 
weeks and weeks while she grew strong in the 
country. There had to be warm things in her 
trunk. Some of themJiad to be mended. It 
took time. But at last the trunk was packed. 
(Mother and Henry and Katherine wrote 
crow letters for Aunt Phoebe and tucked these 
away inside. Jimsi volunteered to see that 
they reached Aunt Phoebe's pillow — some- 
how.) 

And then the day came! Daddy took Jimsi's 
bag. There was a big hugging for Mother and 
Katherine and Henry who couldn't go to the 
train because he had to go to school — and then 



12 THE GOOD CROW'S HAPPY SHOP 

Jimsi and Daddy walked down the street to 
take the car for the railway station. At the 
corner Jimsi turned for the forty-eleventh 
time: "Maybe you can come up for vacation, 
Henry," she called back. "I'll write you all 
about The Happy Shop." Just at that mo- 
ment the car came and they hopped aboard. 
Before she knew what was happening, Daddy 
and she were on the train and the train was 
leaving the city. Slowly the train came out of 
the dark tunnel that marked its departure 
from town. Out into open spaces of wide 
skies and fields it curved along the tracks. 
And as Jimsi gazed through the car window 
happily, watching the landscape bright in the 
sunlight, there flew from a thicket a single big 
black crow! "Caw-caw," called the crow. 
"Caw-caw." And Jimsi pulled Daddy's arm — 
his head was deep in a newspaper — "Oh, look, 
look!" she cried. "Daddy, there's the Good 
Crow!" Wasn't it fun! Oh, wasn't it fun! 
That big black crow had said caw-caw and he 
was flying in the same direction as Jimsi's 
train! Already Aunt Phoebe's play crow 
seemed more real than ever. And every mo- 
ment the train was bringing Jimsi nearer and 
nearer to Aunt Phoebe and The Happy Shop. 



CHAPTER II 

The Happy Shop and the Magic 
Book 

THE first thing Jimsi said, when the 
train stopped at a little station where 
Aunt Phoebe was waiting to greet them 
on the platform, was, "Oh, Aunt Phoebe, I 
saw the Crow. He followed the train. I'm 
sure it must have been your crow because I 
heard him say caw-caw!" 

Aunt Phoebe smiled. "Wasn't that funny," 
she laughed. "Wait, Jimsi, you'll really see 
my crow soon. He's in The Happy Shop 
now. But don't expect too much, dear. You 
musn't be disappointed!" 

They walked through the little country 
town together. Aunt Phoebe's house, so she 
said, wasn't far from the station. Everything 
seemed so quiet and there were so few people ! 
Jimsi had only been in the country summers. 
Xow that it was winter-time and the ground 
was bare and brown, the country didn't seem 
like the same sort of a place. Jimsi began to 



14 THE GOOD CROW'S HAPPY SHOP 

wonder what she would find to do all day long. 
True, Aunt Phoebe could always invent splen- 
did things — and there was going to be a fine 
new play called The Happy Shop ! Yes, there 
was The Happy Shop ! "What is The Happy 
Shop?" she asked, looking up to Aunt Phoebe 
as she trotted along between Daddy and her. 
"I want to know all about The Happy Shop !" 

"Oh, you'll have to wait for that, Jimsi," 
returned Aunt Phoebe. "Here we are" — and 
they turned in at a quaint green gate that led 
to a small bare garden that was shrouded in 
boughs of evergreen. The house was small 
like the garden. Aunt Phoebe lived here 
alone, though one never, never could imagine 
an aunt like Aunt Phoebe as being the least 
bit lonely. Why, she never could be lonely — 
there was too much for her to think about 
and do, don't you know. It's only the per- 
sons who sit still and think how miserable they 
are who are lonely! 

Jimsi followed her into the hall. It was old- 
fashioned and quaint like the garden. Up- 
stairs there was a wee little room that looked 
out into the boughs of the evergreens. It was 
papered in soft blue-green and it had a most 
inviting soft bed with a blue cover. Aunt 



THE MAGIC BOOK 15 

Phoebe took Jimsi's cloak and hat and hung 
them in the closet. She put back the covers 
of the bed and made her lie down and rest. 
"You came here to grow well and strong," 
she said. "We must do what Mother wants 
you to do. By and by I'll call you and you can 
come down." She covered Jimsi up with 
something downy. Then she kissed her. 
"Deary," she smiled. "Look under the pil- 
low — " and then she closed the door softly and 
left Jimsi lying there feeling under the pillow 
for — for — why a crow letter, of course! 

Jimsi giggled softly to herself as she felt it 
under the pillow and drew it out. 

" Dearest Jimsi: 

Try to take a good nap like a good little 
girl. I am glad you are here and I hope you 
will do all you can to grow well and strong. 
To-morrow, maybe, Aunt Phoebe will show 
you The Happy Shop. I think you'll like it. 
With love from vour 

Good Crow." 

It was such a darling little tiny letter! It 
had a wee stamp in one corner. The siamp 
was drawn with red ink. Oh, it was darling 
of thoughtful Aunt Phoebe to do that! 
Wasn't it exactly like her too! Jimsi smiled 
as she folded the tiny sheet and put it back 



16 THE GOOD CROW'S HAPPY SHOP 

in the envelope. Then, obediently, she curled 
down into the downy bed and shut her eyes 
tight, resolving to do all she could to help 
Aunt Phoebe keep the promise to Mother. 

When she woke, it was growing dusk. 
Aunt Phoebe was at the door of the little blue 
room calling, "Up, Jimsi! What a fine nap 
you've had. It's almost tea-time!" She lit a 
candle and helped Jimsi unpack her trunk a 
bit and dress. Then, hand in hand they went 
down to the hall where Daddy was consulting 
his watch. "I must be off," he declared. 

Well, for a few moments after he had gone, 
Jimsi thought she was going to cry — but she 
didn't ! Oh, no ! Of course she didn't ! She 
knew that she was going to miss Daddy fear- 
fully and Mother and Henry and Katherine 
too but Jimsi was a plucky girl. She swal- 
lowed the lump in her throat. "Can't I help 
you get tea on the table, Aunt Phoebe?" she 
asked. (Mother told Jimsi once that the way 
to be happy was to forget oneself. "Think! 
See if you can't help somebody, dear, when 
you feel like that. Try it and see!") 

So Jimsi tried to help. She set the table 
with the pretty blue plates. She found where 
knives and forks were in the sideboard. She 



THE MAGIC BOOK 17 

searched out the tumblers and by and by all 
was done. 

"Shall we ask the crow in to tea?" demanded 
Aunt Phoebe, coming in from the kitchen with 
a dish steaming and good to sniff. 

"Can we!" exclaimed Jimsi. 

Aunt Phoebe smiled. "We might play it," 
she suggested. "Lay another plate, just for 
fun. I'll get the crow!" 

Jimsi was mystified. Oh, dear! How jolly! 
How splendidly jolly! What was Aunt 
Phoebe up to now? 

And then while she was still wondering and 
laughing softly, into the room stepped Aunt 
Phoebe and she had — she had a big black crow 
in her hand ! He was a stuffed crow and very 
black and splendid. He was perched on a 
twig that was on a standard. Quite solemnly 
but with her eyes merry with a twinkle, Aunt 
Phoebe set the crow down in the chair that 
was to be his and introduced him. 

"This is Jimsi, my play-niece," said she, 
"Jimsi, this is my play-crow, Caw Caw." 

"I'm very happy to know you, Caw Caw," 
said Jimsi, entering with spirit into the play. 
"You've always been a friend of mine but I 
never expected to see you really and truly. I 



18 THE GOOD CROW'S HAPPY SHOP 

thought you were just pretend, you know — 
something like Cinderella's lovely fairy god- 
mother. And yet I always liked to play you 
were true. I'm glad now that I can play 
you're true!" 

The crow said nothing, of course. But 
Aunt Phoebe explained that he didn't talk 
much, so the two of them ate supper and 
talked together, making conversation for the 
crow the way one plays dolls. 

"Will you tell me about The Happy Shop, 
Mr. Crow?" inquired Jimsi politely of the 
funny stuffed crow. She could hardly keep 
her face straight but she hid a smile in her 
table napkin. 

"I'll have to talk for him," Aunt Phoebe de- 
clared. "Yes, I'll tell you about The Happy 
Shop. We'll go there first thing in the morn- 
ing. I think you'll like it. There are ever so 
many nice things in it but the very nicest is 
the Magic Book, I think." 

"The Magic Book?" echoed Jimsi. "Whafs 
the Magic Book?" 

"I'll show it to you after the Crow goes to 
roost," answered Aunt Phoebe. "You mustn't 
call him Mr. Crow! He doesn't like it. His 
name is Caw Caw." 



THE MAGIC BOOK 19 

Perhaps the Crow would have liked corn to 
eat. I'm afraid Aunt Phoebe's crow, being 
just a stuffed play-crow, wouldn't have eaten 
corn, though, if he had had it — no, not any 
more than a doll will eat cake at a party. You 
have to pretend that the doll eats. So Aunt 
Phoebe pretended most beautifully to pour 
out cocoa for the crow — a second cup, mind 
you! She gave him second helpings of nearly 
everything and Jimsi followed suit. Indeed, 
her appetite seemed really pretty good for a 
little girl who is getting well after a long sick- 
ness. 

When tea was over, Aunt Phoebe said that 
they would go to see The Happy Shop, even 
though it was dark there now. She lit a 
dainty pink candle and with the Good Crow 
Caw Caw, they went into the hall. 

Just off the hall at the side of the house was 
Aunt Phoebe's study. She did ever so many 
wonderful things there. She wrote books. 
Maybe that was how Aunt Phoebe came to 
think up so many jolly things to play. She 
was almost always making up a story or writ- 
ing an article for a magazine or something. 
She knew all manner of things and when she 
didn't know about them, there were books in 



20 THE GOOD CROW'S HAPPY SHOP 

the study that could tell — great big books all 
full of print, books that Aunt Phoebe did not 
write but books like those in the school library 
at home. Aunt Phoebe explained all about 
the books and showed Jimsi her desk and the 
big typewriter as they passed through into 
The Happy Shop that opened with glass doors 
into the study. It was — Oh, it was a little 
glass room. In the light of the candle, Jimsi 
could see blooming plants on shelves. There 
was also a couch and a big table and a chair. 
On the table, lay a big flat book — ever so big. 
It was a queer book. In the dark, Jimsi 
couldn't see exactly what it was. Aunt Phoebe 
picked it up and said, "This is the Magic Book, 
Jimsi! You can't see what it is like here but 
we'll look it over in my study where there is a 
lamp. Now, we'll leave Caw Caw here. It's 
where he stays at night. In the morning 
when the plants are watered, I think he must 
fly off to the Santa Claus land but you'll find 
his mail-box here and you can always look for 
letters in it." She picked up a small white 
box that was very like a tiny mail-box. On it 
was written MAIL. (It looked as if Aunt 
Phoebe's own fingers — that were very clever 



THE MAGIC BOOK 21 

fingers indeed — might have made the toy mail- 
box for the Good Crow.) 

Oh, it was lovely — lovely! Jimsi squealed 
delightedly. The Happy Shop was splendid 
— of course, she didn't understand all that it 
meant yet, but she knew it was going to be 
splendid, splendid! 

Jimsi put the little mail-box back on the 
shelf beside the crow. She peered about in the 
candle-light to see more of The Happy Shop, 
but it was really too dark to see what else was 
there and she knew she would have to wait 
till morning. She followed Aunt Phoebe into 
the study to look at the Magic Book. 

"I suppose," said Aunt Phoebe, sitting 
down to her big study table and drawing Jimsi 
up on her lap quite as if she enjoyed having 
little girls muss up her pretty blue dress, 
"maybe you won't think that this book is 
magic but I assure you that it IS! In it are 
ever so many, many, many different kinds of 
splendid things, — things to make, Jimsi." 

Jimsi looked at the big book spread out on 
the study table. On its cover was written the 
name of a wall paper firm. As she turned the 
leaves, there were papers of all kinds in it, blue 
and pink and yellow and green and red and 



22 



THE GOOD CROWS HAPPY SHOP 



brown and violet and white and even purple. 
There were sheets of striped papers as well 
as plain papers. There were dotted papers, 



m * 




• 

■ ■■'.<■ 



The Magic Book of the Good Crows Happy Shop Was a 
Big Sample Book of Wall Paper 

crossed papers, papers with big designs and 
papers with small designs. Some had flowers 
and some had none. Some were thin and some 
were heavy. Some had splendid dashing sprays 
of floral coloring. Others were inconspicuous 
and unassuming. There were all sorts of com- 



THE MAGIC BOOK 23 

binations of color and pattern. Yes, there were 
even figures in some of the borders and there 
was paper meant for nursery walls. It had 
dogs and cats and little ducks in it. There 
was more of the nursery wall paper, they 
found. Why, there were fames in one pat- 
tern! Jimsi was delighted! "They are beau- 
tiful! Look at this!" she kept exclaiming. 

"All hidden in this book, Jimsi, are ever 
so many things. That's why I called it the 
Magic Book. You can't see half that is here. 
I don't begin to know how many things are in 
these papers. We'll have to ask Caw Caw 
to help us. You see, he knows much and he 
can tell you in his play letters, maybe. We 
call your sunny little room there The Happy 
Shop because you are going to learn how to 
make some of the things that are to be found 
in the Magic Book every day. In The Happy 
Shop is a work-table and some paste and a 
pair of scissors. To-morrow, the Good Crow 
will leave a letter in the mail-box, I think, and 
tell you what you can do to make your own fun 
all by yourself for play. What do you like 
best to play at home, Jimsi?" 

"Dolls," promptly sang out Jimsi. "I 
love to play dolls. But it isn't much fun to 



24 THE GOOD CROW'S HAPPY SHOP 

play dolls all alone and I left mine at home. 
I was afraid that my best doll would get hurt 
in packing and I didn't want to break her — 
beside that, I thought you'd probably have 
The Happy Shop play to keep me busy." 

"Yes, you're right, Jimsi! And it will keep 
you busy too!" smiled Aunt Phoebe. "Do 
you know, it was just luck that made me run 
across the Magic Book. You see I had the 
little room where you are repapered in blue. 
I'm so glad I did! And the paper hanger 
brought this sample book with him when he 
came. When I saw it and after I chose the 
blue paper in your room, I asked if I could 
buy it. He shook his head. 'It's just a sample 
book,' he said, 'We have ever so many of 
them. The dealers give them to us and we 
throw them away after we have no more 
use for them. The patterns are new every 
year and the fresh sample books come in in 
January. This happens to be a book of last 
year and if you want it, you are more than 
welcome to it, if it is of any use to you.' ' 

"Why, think of it!" Jimsi beamed, squeezing 
Aunt Phoebe's hand. "Did you tell him?" 

"Oh, I told him that I'd like to have the 
book very much and that I thought there were 



THE MAGIC BOOK 25 

ever so many children who would like his old 
sample books of wall paper," returned Aunt 
Phoebe. "He just gives them away. Paper- 
hangers, it seems, always throw them out or 
sell them to the junkmen and they never give 
them to children because, Jimsi dear, the chil- 
dren don't know anything at all about them. 
Xobody but the Good Crow and I know about 
Magic that is in old sample books of wall 
paper! But, Jimsi, it's time for bed and you 
know we both made Mother a promise. Kiss 
me good-night, dear. Here's the candle. I'll 
come up for a hug later as Mother does." 

And then Jimsi went up to the little blue 
room with her candle. She turned down the 
covers and slipped her hand under the pillow 
but the crow had not put any other letter there. 
Xot again that day! 



CHAPTER III 

The Paper Dolls Jimsi Made 

THE sun woke Jimsi in the morning. It 
was peeping into the little blue room 
from between the evergreen trees out- 
side. For a moment, Jimsi wondered where 
she was and then she remembered, of course! 
She hopped into her red woolly wrapper and 
slipped on the slippers that had Peter Rab- 
bit's picture on their toes. The door was open 
into Aunt Phoebe's room and in she ran to 
say good-morning. "I just can't wait to see 
The Happy Shop, Auntie," she chirped. 
"Please, might I go and look at it right away 
now!" 

"Well — yes," Aunt Phoebe deliberated, 
"only come right back after you've peeked into 
the mail-box. I dare say the crow has left 
something there." 

So off sped Jimsi in the little red shoes that 
had Peter Rabbit's picture on them, through 
the study where pages of white paper on the 
big desk showed that Aunt Phoebe had worked 



28 THE GOOD CROW'S HAPPY SHOP 

writing a story late last night. Jimsi opened 
the glass door that led into The Happy Shop. 
It opened with a wee brass doorknob and the 
doors swung open into the study. Beyond 
there was a kind of enclosed porch — only it 
was not a porch. It was more like a conserva- 
tory or a room with glass sides and top. There 
were blue curtains that could be drawn to keep 
out the sunlight and windows that opened 
wide to let in the fresh air. Plants bloomed 
all about on shelves. Right beside the shelf 
where Aunt Phoebe had put the crow last 
night there was a beautiful green vine that 
had blue-petaled buds and star-shaped flow- 
ers. Could anybody imagine a more lovely 
place in which to play than this Happy Shop ! 

Jimsi sighed happily. It was all so perfect ! 
How she wished Mother could see it! 
Wouldn't Henry and Katherine like to play 
there! Then Jimsi remembered that she had 
promised not to stay long and she reached 
for the Crow Mail-Box. Surely! there was a 
tiny envelope in the box! What fun! 

Upstairs, seated on the bed in the little blue 
room with Aunt Phoebe hovering about to 
watch her read it, Jimsi chuckled over the 
Good Crow Caw Caw's letter. 



THE PAPER DOLLS 29 

" Dear Jimsi: 

To-day I've gone off to a crow convention, 
so I leave this letter to tell you something 
you will find in the Magic Book to-day. 
You'll find paper doll dresses! You'll have 
to hunt for them, but you'll find them — 
whole wardrobes of them: blue, pink, green, 
red, yellow, flowered, striped. Look for them. 

In the drawer of the big table there are 
pencils and some sheets of cardboard. 

My friend Jim Crow is calling, so I must 
close this letter now. 

I send you a crow kiss — a peck of love. 

Caw Caw. 

P.S. 

You'll find paper dolls enough for days 
and days of play, if you look in the big- 
fashion papers that are in the magazine rack 
beside the couch in The Happy Shop. Cut 
the stylish ladies out. Mount them on the 
cardboard with your paste. I must fly! 

Crow." 

Jimsi could hardly wait to finish breakfast 
and then, afterwards, she and Aunt Phoebe 
took a brisk walk to market and back. All of 
it delayed the crow play but all the time 
Jimsi was talking about it. "Oh, I never knew 
there were such splendid papers to make paper 
doll clothes anywhere, Aunt Phoebe! I didn't 
think of it at all last night when you showed 
me the Magic Book! It will be the most jolly 



30 THE GOOD CROW'S HAPPY SHOP 

kind of fun! Think of the dresses that the 
flowered papers will make!" 

"Yes," smiled Aunt Phoebe, "and jackets 
and cloaks and hats and muff , and scarfs and 
kimonos — oh, my! I can't begin to name all 
the clothes you can make." 

"Are there little girl dolls in the fashion 
magazines? There are, aren't there?" 

Aunt Phoebe nodded. 

"Then I'll make little girl dresses for them 
— O-oo! Party dresses!" 

"Maybe there are babies and little boys and 
men in the colored picture pages of the fash- 
ion books too!" 

"Oh, I'll make a whole family! I think it 
will be simply dandy! Maybe I can copy the 
styles in the magazine. That would be nicef 
Oh, Aunt Phoebe, aren't we about ready to go 
home?" But though Jimsi wanted to get to 
The Happy Shop, she waited patiently while 
Aunt Phoebe did errands. It was about half 
past ten before Jimsi was able to throw off her 
coat and rush for The Happy Shop. 

"I'm going to be very busy," Aunt Phoebe 
warned. "You'll hear the typewriter click- 
click-click. The crow has put all kinds of little 
things in the drawer of the table, I think. You 



THE PAPER DOLLS 31 

won't have to disturb me, Jimsi. I'm ever so 
particular about not being spoken to when I'm 
busy, Jimsi. But you'll be busy yourself. 
When I finish, I want to see all the splendid 
paper dolls you .'iave made and you must show 
me every one of their dresses and hats!" 

With that, Aunt Phoebe pulled out her 
desk chair and became suddenly absorbed in 
her morning's work. Jimsi, in the sunny 
Happy Shop, slowly turned to close the glass 
doors after her. The windows were open a bit 
and the softest of fresh breezes fluttered the 
leaves of the blue vine that crept past the 
crow's mail-box. The little girl could not de- 
cide what to do first! The Magic Book was 
so wonderfully interesting; the patterns of 
paper so wonderfully pretty. Which should 
she choose for the first paper doll dress? Jimsi 
decided on one that had pink sprigs of daisies 
in it. Then, suddenly, she saw another that 
was covered with yellow flowers. And, be- 
side these, there were numbers and numbers 
more! Jimsi turned the leaves of the Magic 
Book on and on. Each new pattern seemed 
the prettiest one yet. And how many leaves 
there were in that sample book! Why, the 
leaves were so very large and long that each 



32 



THE GOOD CROWS HAPPY SHOP 



would make hundreds of dresses all alike, if 
one wished. 

At last Jimsi decided to leave the Magic 



% i 



/ \»— 







The Paper Dolls That Were Cut from Magazines and Whose 
Clothes Were Made from Wall Paper 

Book and make at least one paper doll that 
could be dressed. She settled herself cosily on 
the wicker couch with a pile of the fashion 
books beside her. Of course, she found a 
pretty lady right away. The lady had dark 
hair done up in a very modern and stylish way. 
Jimsi cut her out. 



THE PAPER DOLLS 33 

But the paper doll had a dress on ! Oh dear ! 
How can you put another dress on a doll that 
already has a costume on her? Jimsi thought: 
she decided to take the lady's outline as a guide 
and make a new body using the head as it was 
printed. So she placed the paper doll on the 
sheet of cardboard and traced around her to 
get the outline. Then she pasted the head on 
the cardboard and drew stockings and slip- 
pers. She colored the arms on the cardboard 
flesh-tint and the stockings and slippers black. 
Then she cut out the cardboard outline that 
had the paper head and there, if you please, 
was a real paper doll, as splendid as any you 
ever saw anywhere! 

Of course one paper doll is lonely by herself 
and Jimsi had to make the lady doll a sister. 
This time, she chose a fashion print that had 
light hair. But she made the paper doll as 
she had made the other. It was terribly excit- 
ing now! Jimsi had to make up her mind 
what kind of a dress to make for the first 
paper doll. She named her Mrs. Sweet. The 
sister was Miss Pretty. 

At last, Jimsi thought Mrs. Sweet ought 
to have the dress with pink flowers and Miss 



34 THE GOOD CROW'S HAPPY SHOP 

Pretty the one with yellow buds. She placed 
the doll — Mrs. Sweet — on the sheet of wall 
paper and outlined all around her with a pen- 
cil, making the skirt of the frock just a stylish 
ankle length. At the top where the shoulders 
were, Jimsi drew tabs to bend and hold the 
dress on the doll. Then she cut the dress out, 
making it have a V neck. The pink flowers 
were in a long stripe right down the front of 
the dress. They looked like a dainty trim- 
ming. But the dress still needed to be fin- 
ished, so Jimsi found the box of crayons that 
thoughtful crow had left on the table and she 
made jiggles to represent lace, straight paral- 
lel lines to represent tucks, little dots to repre- 
sent smocking. Black dots that were larger 
were buttons, of course. One could make 
almost any sort of trimming in this simple 
way. The black crayon could be very black 
indeed. One could make black velvet trim- 
ming? Oh, it was splendid fun! Jimsi was 
so occupied that she never even heard Aunt 
Phoebe open the glass doors of The Happy 
Shop and it was not till Aunt Phoebe stood 
right beside her that she was aware. Aunt 
Phoebe laughed. "Well, Jimsi, you found 
some of the magic, didn't you? It's exactly 



THE PAPER DOLLS 35 

ten minutes past twelve. Did you know it was 
so late?" 

Jimsi held up the beautiful Mrs. Sweet in 
one hand and the handsome Miss Pretty in 
the other. "Oh, I've just begun," she pro- 
tested. "I haven't done anything but start. 
See!—" 

"Well, I've finished," declared Aunt 
Phoebe. "I'll help. Suppose I make some 
hats!" 

So Aunt Phoebe made the hats. She made 
them by cutting big and little ovals out of the 
wall paper. Cutting a strip horizontally 
across the center, one could slip the doll's head 
up through this and put the hat right on. 
Aunt Phoebe trimmed the hats she made with 
wall paper flowers or bows cut from paper or 
by drawing on them with crayon. There were 
big and little hats — some plain walking hats 
and others evidently meant for dressy occa- 
sions. 

While Aunt Phoebe was helping with the 
hats, Jimsi cut a cloak for Miss Pretty. It 
must have been an opera cloak for it was loose 
and flowing and made of something quite 
silky. (For the wall paper had a satin stripe 
in it, you know.) It was an exceptional sue- 



36 THE GOOD CROW'S HAPPY SHOP 

cess. Jimsi surveyed it happily. It was 
splendid. Such a cloak ought to cost at least 
— but how much do cloaks cost? It must be 
nice to be a paper doll and be able to dress so 
well in "just paper"! 

Oh, yes, Jimsi made Mrs. Sweet a tailor 
suit all of plain brown wall paper and both of 
the dolls had separate skirts for shirt waists, 
kimonos, dressing- j ackets and muffs. (The 
muffs were made of dark wall paper and were 
fat ovals with slits cut at either end so the 
doll's hand could be slipped in.) 

Aunt Phoebe and Jimsi were so very, very 
busy that they were both ever so surprised 
when suddenly the little white-aproned maid 
who worked by the day for Aunt Phoebe ap- 
peared at the door of The Happy Shop. 
"Lunch is served," said she. And there was 
nothing but to leave the play and run as fast 
as possible to wash the paste off hands and 
give one's hair a smart pat with a hurried hair- 
brush. 

At lunch Jimsi announced that she was go- 
ing to make little girl dolls next. She thought 
she would have three little girl dolls in her 
family: a baby, a middling-sized girl of ten 
or eleven, and an older girl of High School 



THE PAPER DOLLS 37 

age. "I'm going to have one boy," she said. 
"Boys won't be so much fun because their 
clothes are so plain. But I'll make a water- 
proof coat for this one, an overcoat, and one 
or two plain suits. The papa doll can have 
the same kind." 

But Aunt Phoebe decided that Jimsi must 
run out-doors in the garden after lunch and 
then come in and take a nap. After that, of 
course, she could do anything she wished in 
The Happy Shop. Aunt Phoebe thought it 
might be pleasant to write Mother a letter. 
So the afternoon passed with the out-doors 
and the nap and the letter. Jimsi found the 
little girl dolls in the fashion papers and had 
them all ready to cut and paste next day, but 
by that time had flown by so fast that the 
evening had come and with it there were 
new interests to draw her away from paper 
dolls. There was the crow who came back mys- 
teriously and whom Jimsi discovered sitting 
up high on one of Aunt Phoebe's bookshelves ; 
there was the going for stamps to mail the 
letter home. It was quite chilly and the stars 
in the night sky were bright like diamonds 
when the two came back and opened the front 
door at Aunt Phoebe's. Jimsi hadn't been 



38 THE GOOD CROW'S HAPPY SHOP 

lonely at all — why the whole day had passed 
and she had been almost all the time alone. 
Only the time before lunch and just before 
dinner at night, had Aunt Phoebe been with 
her; yet Jimsi had been happy. The secret, 
Aunt Phoebe said, was that she had been busy 
with happy play and work. "That, as every- 
body knows, is the one way to keep glad — but 
there's another, Jimsi. Maybe the crow'll tell 
you what that is some day." 



IV 

The Toy Furniture 

THE next day Jimsi dashed down to the 
Good Crow's letter-box hoping for a 
letter. But there was none. Aunt 
Phoebe said that she thought the crow meant 
that there was no need for him to write till 
Jimsi needed a new kind of magic play. It 
was a bit disappointing not to find a letter in 
the mail-box, but Jimsi consoled herself. 
Aunt Phoebe was going to let her water the 
plants every morning. There was a cunning 
little watering-pot painted red. It stood in 
a corner of The Happy Shop. It was really 
fun to water the thirsty plants and watch to 
see that dead leaves were kept from them. 
After having done this little duty to help, 
Jimsi went to market again with Aunt Phoebe 
and then, afterwards, she was again in The 
Happy Shop to play at cutting doll dresses. 
Oh, she made the little girl dolls this time. 
They were made in the same way as the lady 
dolls. And she also made the gentleman doll 



40 THE GOOD CROW'S HAPPY SHOP 

and the little boy. By that time it was lunch 
again. Oh, dear! There had been not a second 
yet to dress the boy doll! 

And then came the out-door and the — yes, 
the horrid old nap! (Don't you hate to take 
naps! I hope you don't have to — but if you 
do, I do hope you're good about it and that 
you don't pout and act disagreeable. I do! 
The nap has to come, so you might much bet- 
ter be pleasant and happy about it and have 
nothing to be ashamed of.) 

Jimsi believed in doing what she was told 
to do and, beside, that nap had been one of the 
conditions that governed the visit to Aunt 
Phoebe's and The Happy Shop — and both 
Aunt Phoebe and Jimsi had promised. 

When she woke up, Aunt Phoebe told her 
she could play in the shop till dinner-time, if 
she chose. It was rather damp and chilly out- 
doors. So Jimsi made the boy doll's clothes 
and cut out the daddy of the family. That 
was a good afternoon's work! 

At bed-time, Jimsi was about to hop into 
the cosy white four-poster when, somehow, 
her hand began to feel under the pillow and 
there, my dear, there — there was sl letter! 



THE TOY FURNITURE 41 

How like the crow to make it a surprise and 
not put it in the letter-box downstairs! 

By the light of the pink candle, Jimsi tore 
open the wee envelope and read: 

" Dearest Little Girl: 

When I came to perch on my shelf last 
night, I saw the lovely dolls you made and 
the wonderfully beautiful dresses and hats 
and cloaks and muffs and evening wraps and 
things. When you have finished the family, 
I'll tell you something nice: make a doll 
house for them. I can tell you how to make 
furniture to fit your dolls. You'll find ever 
so many things for the furnishing of a doll 
house right in your Magic Book. 

Lovingly, 

Crow. 
P. S. 

You were good to take that nap without 
pouting. I wish Mother had seen you start 
right on the dot. I like children who keep 
their promises. Look for a letter to-morrow." 

Jimsi woke quite early the next morning, 
even before the sun began to shine through 
the boughs of the evergreens outside the win- 
dow. It was first dusk and then soft pink and 
then came faint sunbeams that grew brighter 
and brighter. But the clock on the bureau 
was pointing to an early hour and Jimsi 
waited for Aunt Phoebe to move. She did 
not want to wake her, for she was a thought- 



42 THE GOOD CROW'S HAPPY SHOP 

f ul little girl — but she did want the crow letter 
that she knew must be in the mail-box in The 
Happy Shop! 

Aunt Phoebe was so late in waking that 
Jimsi had to scurry to get dressed and 
couldn't go downstairs at all after that letter. 
And then there was breakfast immediately. 
But afterwards — afterwards, she and Aunt 
Phoebe dashed to the mail-box that stood on 
the crow's shelf in The Happy Shop. Sure 
enough, there was the letter! 

Jimsi tore open the envelope — why, there 
was nothing written in it. It was just some 
diagrams of the promised furniture for the 
paper dolls — but wasn't that worth getting! 
All the time, Jimsi had been wondering how 
to cut furniture. She hadn't known at all. 
She had hoped the crow would send her the 
directions but here were just diagrams, the 
very things to puzzle over and use! Under 
each diagram was written what it would 
make and the diagrams were like this. 

Of course, the Good Crow couldn't draw 
very well but he did wonderfully considering 
that he had to write and draw with a claw in- 
stead of a hand, Jimsi thought. The idea of 
the crow's drawing made her laugh. "Aunt 






__ 


1 


1 


1 


1 


1 


1 


— 


— 




Toy Furniture: The Bed, the Chair and Stool were made from Wall Paper 



GF^ 




u 



71 



Toy Furniture: The Couch, the Table, the Bureau 
Diagram 1 



44 THE GOOD CROW'S HAPPY SHOP 

Phoebe," she giggled, "that crow of yours is 
ever so funny! Imagine a crow's drawing 
pictures! But I'm going to make the furni- 
ture and start right away!" 

So Aunt Phoebe shut the doors of The 
Happy Shop and went to her work while 
Jimsi began to puzzle over the crow's dia- 
grams. First there was the bed. That was 
to be cut from a, long piece of paper about as 
long as a paper doll — the longest doll, of 
course. Jimsi decided that the very, very 
heavy wall paper might be used to make the 
toy furniture and she found some that was 
wood-color in the Magic Book. 

She cut the bed's legs about an inch and a 
quarter long and parallel with the length of 
the oblong piece of cardboard. Then, she 
bent the legs down and the rest of the ends 
upward to make baseboards. That made a 
paper bed. 

But, somehow, when the bed was placed on 
its legs it sank under the weight of the paper 
dolls, so Jimsi made another bed out of card- 
board and pasted the wall paper bed over it. 
That did splendidly! 

She made a pillow of white wall paper and 
added a coverlet. (There might have been a 



THE TOY FURNITURE 



45 



fancy blanket under the coverlet, of course. 
This would have been cut from some other 
paper with a pattern design upon it. ) 




The Paper Doll Furniture That Was Cut from Cardboard and 
Upholstered with Wall Paper 

Jimsi made a table next. It was cut like 
the bed, but in finishing it, the footboard parts 
were entirely cut off. And then, too, the 
table had longer legs than the bed. It was 
made to fit the size of the dolls by measuring. 
It was necessary to cut the legs the length of 
the paper dolls from feet up to waist. The 



46 THE GOOD CROW'S HAPPY SHOP 

table was measured to fit the big lady doll and 
the gentleman. 

The chairs were a bit different: to make a 
chair one had to cut a piece of cardboard the 
least little bit smaller than a table — and not 
half so wide. One cut the front legs to fit 
below the table and cut off the bit of cardboard 
there as the table end was cut. The rear of 
the chair oblong was straight then. The next 
step was to cut legs of the same length as the 
front legs. These were bent down like the first 
and the part that remained was the back of 
the chair! Jimsi upholstered the chairs with 
fancy designs cut from other colored sheets of 
wall paper. It was jolly! Jimsi made enough 
chairs for all the doll family. Indeed, the 
dolls seemed most sociable as they sat in a row 
on The Happy Shop's table! 

A sofa could be made on lines like the chair, 
only making the cutting of the cardboard 
oblong wide and giving it the depth of the 
chair also. The sofa was likewise upholstered. 
Oh, the toy furniture was great! Jimsi longed 
to start a doll house and looked about The 
Happy Shop to see if she could find a place 
to lay it out. At last she did discover a place, 



THE TOY FURNITURE 47 

on the floor at one end of the shop. She fixed 
it up beautifully. Bits of wall paper design 
cut out in ovals and oblongs, fringed by snip- 
ping with the scissors, made rugs for the 
house. If Jimsi had only had a box of some 
kind — if she could have interrupted Aunt 
Phoebe to ask for it, she could have made car- 
pets of wall paper and had wall paper curtains 
too. 

When the house was done, Jimsi made be- 
lieve that Mr. and Mrs. Sweet went to walk 
in the park. The park was all of the greenery 
of The Happy Shop. The ferns made a won- 
derful grove. All the Sweet children wanted 
to have a picnic there. So Jimsi made a white 
table cloth from the Magic Book's paper and 
cut rounds for plates and funny snips of three 
cornered wall paper bits for sandwiches. And 
there was a big round cake too! Oh, yes — 
and some pies that were colored with crayons. 

After Jimsi had played all this, it was 
lunch time and again the hours had flown by 
fast. 

In the afternoon, when Jimsi went upstairs, 
right on top of her pillow there was another 
crow letter! 



48 the good crow's happy shop 

" Dear Jimsi: 

I have told you about two new plays that 
I think ever so many little girls would like 
to know about. I hope you will tell other 
children about them when you go home. I 
don't think Henry would care much but 
Katherine will when she grows older. 

There is a little lame girl next door. I 
know her, just as I know you. Don't you 
want to tell her about your Magic Book and 
show her the plays you have found out about? 

It would be ever so nice to have somebody 
to play paper dolls with and I'm sure she'd 
like to know you. 

Some day, I'll write you where she lives 
more exactly and I'll send you word when 
you can go to see her. 

Your 

Caw Caw. 

P. S. 

If I were you I'd keep my paper dolls 
nicely and put them in envelopes. In the 
drawer of the table in The Happy Shop, 
there is a package of big Manilla envelopes 
you can use. Write the name of each doll 
on the envelope you use for it and its dresses. 

P. S. P. S. 

If I were you, Jimsi, I'd pick up The Happy 
Shop this afternoon. The bits of paper on 
the floor look untidy and I think when one 
is cutting, it is a good plan to put a newspaper 
over the floor to catch scraps. I like neat 
children and my Happy Shop should be very 
well kept. 

Thank you for watering the flowers. 

C. C." 



THE TOY FURNITURE 49 

A wave of shame came to Jimsi sitting 
there on the bed — Oh, dear! She wanted to 
run right down and clean up the shop. She 
remembered that those bits of paper did look 
untidy. Oh, dear! But the nap came first. 
Soon she was sound asleep. 

Xothing of great importance happened the 
rest of that day, for Jimsi spent a large part 
of time in tidying The Happy Shop when she 
woke. Then she fixed up the paper dolls in 
the envelopes. And it was bed-time. That 
night, however, the paper dolls slept in beds 
all arranged on Jimsi's dresser at bed-time. 

When she went to sleep, she dreamed that 
she and the Good Crow were making toy 
furniture and that the crow was really using 
scissors with his claw. She woke up in the 
middle of the night laughing and Aunt 
Phoebe heard her and asked if anything was 
the matter. "It was just the crow," chirped 
Jimsi. "I was dreaming of The Happy Shop 
and he was there cutting toy furniture for 
paper dolls." 

"I think," Aunt Phoebe's voice answered, 
"that maybe a real little girl playmate would 
appreciate paper dolls more, wouldn't she?" 



50 THE GOOD CROW'S HAPPY SHOP 

Jimsi said, "Yes," and then drowsed off to 
sleep again, hoping that the Good Crow would 
tell her soon that she could go and amuse the 
little lame girl who lived somewhere nearby. 



CHAPTER V 

The Motion Picture Fun that the 
Crow Knew 

SURE enough, there was a crow letter in 
the mail-box next morning ! It was writ- 
ten on the same wee note paper with a 
real crow stamp that was drawn in pencil in the 
upper right-hand corner. Jimsi brought it to 
breakfast with her and read it aloud — exactly 
as if Aunt Phoebe didn't know what was in it 
already! You know, that was the crow play 
always ! 

This was the letter: 

" Dear Jimsi: 

To-day, I want you to do something for 
me. You see I do quite a bit for you. I like 
to make you happy, you know, and tell you 
of jolly things to play. What I want you to 
do for me is to tell a little lame girl about 
your paper doll play and the toy furniture 
that my Magic Book made. 

The little lame girl cannot go out-doors 
as you can. She has to stay in a wheel-chair 
and the hours are very long for her. I would 
like to have you help her. You can help her 



52 THE GOOD CROW'S HAPPY SHOP 

much better than I can because you are a 
little girl and I am only a play crow. 

Good-bye, 

Caw Caw. 

P. S. 

Her name is Joyce. She lives in the third 
house from the corner." 

"Oh, I'd love to go!" declared Jimsi. 
"When can I go?" 

"As soon as we've had our walk," Aunt 
Phoebe answered. "Maybe you'd like to do 
something else for Joyce and the Good Crow 
— would you?" 

Jimsi nodded. "I'd love to!" 

"Well, when we go to town, we'll buy Joyce 
some crayons like yours and a bottle of five- 
cent library paste. You shall take them to her 
to work with and you can tell her the crow 
sent them." 

"Splendid!" 

So they went to market and Jimsi bought 
the crayons in the ten cent store. She insisted 
on paying for them herself because she said 
that this time it was going to be her crow. 
Then, when they reached home, Jimsi wrote 
a crow letter to the little lame girl, Joyce, 
and did the crayons up with the five cent bot- 



THE MOTION PICTURE FUN 53 

tie of paste that Aunt Phoebe insisted was 
her crow. 

With a box full of paper doll envelopes and 
toy furniture, and Jimsi's own crayons and 
scissors from The Happy Shop, the Magic 
Book rolled up to make a big package to carry 
under one arm, Jimsi ran over to the third 
brown house from the corner and rang the 
bell. It was rather a dingy little house. It did 
not look pretty. It looked poor and sad. 

But when the door opened, it opened on 
the most cheerful room you can imagine. It 
was Joyce's mother who opened it. She wore 
a big white apron as if she were busy work- 
ing and she beamed down at Jimsi standing 
on the steps with her arms so full of the 
Magic Book and the box of paper dolls that 
she could hardly hold them. 

"I came because the Good Crow wrote me 
a letter about Joyce," stated Jimsi. "The 
Good Crow said she'd like to know about my 
paper dolls so she could play at making 
dresses too. So I came." 

"Oh, come right in, little girl," invited 
Joyce's mother. "Yes. The crow sent Joyce 
a letter yesterday to say that his friend, Jimsi» 



54 THE GOOD CROW'S HAPPY SHOP 

was coming over with a magic book. We're 
very glad you came, aren't we, Joyce?" 

Jimsi hadn't seen Joyce but now she looked 
toward the window and saw a wheel-chair 
with a beautiful dark-haired girl of twelve 
propped up in it and holding out a welcom- 
ing hand. "I'm ever so glad you came," she 
laughed. "Don't you love the Good Crow? 
I do. Miss Phoebe's ever so lovely, I think. 
She's every day thinking up something nice 
for me to do, almost. There's sure to be a 
crow letter full of fun whenever I need it 
most." ; 

"Yes," declared Joyce's mother. "I don't 
know what I'd do, if it weren't for the Good 
Crow who belongs to Miss Phoebe. There's 
only one thing Joyce wants ;to do when she 
isn't reading. It's checkers! I've played 
more games of checkers than you can shake 
a stick at, Jimsi! But when the crow letters 
come with new suggestions for things to do — 
why, you know, Joyce doesn't want to read 
or even play checkers! The Good Crow's 
play is best of all. Tell Jimsi about the mo- 
tion picture play, darling!" 

Motion picture play! Why the very idea of 
it! Goodness, how interesting! Do you know 



THE MOTION PICTURE FUN DO 

anything that is nicer than motion pictures! 
At once Jimsi was wide awake and eager. 
"Oh, I want to know about the motion picture 
play!" she exclaimed. "Oh, please do tell 
me! Was it really true moving pictures?" 

"Yes," asserted Joyce, "they were real, 
weren't they, Mother? But the pictures 
weren't photographs at all. You wait and 
I'll show you my motion picture screen and 
my whole outfit! Mother, will you get them 
for me, please? — You see, Jimsi, it was in the 
fall when the crow told me about these pic- 
tures. In summer I can go outdoors and once 
Daddy wheeled me into town and they let 
me see the motion pictures. (I can't go often 
because it is such a long ride for me.) Well, 
I could think of nothing else afterwards but 
how much I wanted to go again! You know 
how it is." 

Jimsi wagged her head hard, "yes." She 
didn't want to interrupt the story. 

"One day when Miss Phoebe was over here, 
I told her about how I wanted to go to mo- 
tion pictures again and Miss Phoebe said she'd 
see what the crow could do about it — You 
know how Miss Phoebe makes believe 
always!" 



56 THE GOOD CROW'S HAPPY SHOP 

Again Jimsi nodded. "I love to make be- 
lieve the way auntie does," she beamed. 
"Please tell me what happened next"" 

"Well, next, of course, came a crow letter. 
I found it in a bunch of flowers Miss Phoebe 
sent over." (Joyce was trying to cover up the 
things that her mother had laid in her lap. 
Jimsi's eyes had been busy with the details. 
There looked as if paper dolls were there.) 

"You mustn't peep," admonished Joyce. 
"It won't be a surprise if you see. It was a 
surprise for me ! I didn't know that one could 
really make motion picture fun right at home 
— not till Miss Pheobe's crow wrote me a 
play letter about it." 

"Well, I can't see how you do it!" 

"You can do it with the papers in the 
Magic Book/' declared Joyce. 

"Oh, have you a magic book too!" 

They both laughed. What fun! 

"I wonder if yours is like mine?" ques- 
tioned Jimsi. "I didn't know you had a 
Magic Book too, so I brought mine along with 
me! I was going to tell you about how to 
make paper dolls and toy furniture from the 
papers in my Magic Book!" 

"Oh, I'd love to know how," beamed Joyce. 



THE MOTION PICTURE FUN" 



"I think paper dolls are just the nicest play — 
almost. You must show me about them. I 
don't know how to make them. The crow never 




The 4 Motion Pictures That Were Cut from Wall Paper 

told me. But he did tell me about the motion 
pictures and I made this — " she held up for 
Jimsi's examination now a picture frame that 
was about twelve inches long and eight inches 
wide. At the back of the frame where the 
glass had been, there was stretched some 
heavy white cloth — cotton cloth. Back of this, 



58 THE GOOD CROW'S HAPPY SHOP 

where one would place the picture, if one 
were framing one, was the glass that fitted the 
picture frame. 

Joyce turned the frame over. "You see," 
she explained, "when I hold it front-face, it 
looks exactly as a motion picture screen does, 
doesn't it? — That's before the picture play 
begins!" 

Yes, it was true. The frame looked like 
the frame of a motion picture screen. 

"The difference is," went on Joyce, "that 
the crow's motion pictures aren't photographs. 
They're really shadow pictures. One cuts 
silhouettes out of heavy wall paper that is in 
the Magic Book — oh, everything — and then 
one puts the chairs or tables, or cupboards 
next to the glass to make the screen. (I 
always have a little paper curtain that I put 
before my frame while I arrange this. It is 
like the big curtain in the theatre because it 
shuts off the picture screen.) When I have 
arranged the furniture and am ready to make 
the actors walk about in the room, I take the 
paper away so the audience can see." 

"How splendid!" sighed Jimsi, delightedly. 
"I think Henry' d be quite crazy about this 
sort of thing. He's my brother, you know. 



THE MOTION PICTURE FUN 59 

He's a boy, so he thinks paper dolls are girls' 
things and he won't play with them. Do yon 
use paper dolls ? I should think that it would 
be hard to make them move about behind the 
furniture. I should think it would show that 
somebody was moving them." 

"It doesn't though- You'll see!" Here 
the little lame girl took the frame. "Don't 
look," she admonished with a raised forefinger. 
"Pretend your interested in the cat!" 

Indeed, Jimsi hadn't noticed the cat before. 
But now she ran over to the big open fireplace 
where pussy was purring before the wood 
fire. Joyce's mother was sewing on a 
machine. She seemed very Jbusy indeed. 
Jimsi waited for her new friend to give the 
word. She stroked the comfortable tabby and 
thought how wonderful it was that a sick girl 
who couldn't go about except in a wheel-chair 
could be so cheerful and so happy. "I hope 
if I'm ever sick like that that I won't be a 
whiney person," she thought. "It's splendid 
to be happy and glad when things are like 
that and you know you aren't going to be able 
to run about and play — ever. Oh, I like the 
crow's little lame girl wonderfully!" And 
it did seem strange that the little lame girl 



60 THE GOOD CROW'S HAPPY SHOP 

was telling Jimsi about her play even before 
Jimsi had told the little lame girl about hers ! 

But right here, Joyce sang out, "Ready!" 
so Jimsi forgot the pussy cat instantly and 
sprang to her feet. 

"I put the frame on a table when I have a 
real motion picture performance," Joyce ex- 
plained. "But you can see in the daylight 
better if I hold the frame in the sunlight. 
Look!" 

Sure enough! There was the furniture in 
a small room: table, chair, cupboard! They 
were outlined in shadow. 

"One ought to have motion pictures in the 
dark," Joyce laughed. "I used to play that 
way last fall. I lit a candle in the dark and 
placed the candle behind my frame on the 
table. Then I moved the actors about so — " 

Jimsi watched. Joyce had a paper doll-like 
actor cut in outline. To the back of this was 
pasted a strip of heavy paper. As she moved 
the doll across the back of the motion picture 
screen, holding it by the long strip of card- 
board, one could only see the figure move 
across the little room. One did not see the 
hand that moved it or the strip of cardboard 
by which it was held. 



THE MOTION PICTURE FUN 61 

Jolly! I should say so! Why, that was 
exactly the best fun Jimsi had ever seen! 

"Hurrah for the crow!" she chuckled. 
"Why, I think that's better than paper dolls — 
almost!" 

"I'll show you some more," the little lame 
girl volunteered. "You just wait." 

Again she changed the things that lay be- 
side the white cloth and the glass. When 
Jimsi looked, she saw that now there was out- 
door scenery: bushes, trees, a fence. Why, 
it might have been a street in a little town ! 

"I'll show you something else!" 

This time, the "something" was an automo- 
bile. 

As Joyce held the frame in the clear sun- 
light, its shadow on the screen was plain. As 
Jimsi watched, the automobile rushed rapidly 
across the screen from one end of the frame to 
the other! Oh, what fun! And the shadow 
people in it seemed evidently out for a joy 
ride. One wondered that the automobile didn't 
spill them out till Joyce turned the frame 
around and showed Jimsi that the automobile 
was cut out of heavy paper and that it and 
the people were all one piece! 

"I'd like to see one of your motion picture 



62 THE GOOD CROW'S HAPPY SHOP 

plays," declared Jimsi. "Can't you start one 
and make it go right through from beginning 
to end?" 

"If it were only dark, I could," said the 
little lame girl. "But you see Mother needs 
the light for her sewing just now. So we 
can't draw the curtains. I'll show you my 
scenery instead. Some other time we'll make 
the whole motion picture play — Wouldn't it 
be fun for the paper dolls, when I have made 
mine! Your paper dolls and mine can go to 
see the pictures: we'll have a big time! 
Maybe, we can make up a new play and I 
can show you how to cut the scenery for it — 
shall I?" ' 

"What plays have you made?" 

"Well," said the little lame girl, "you know 
I read a great deal. I make the plays of the 
stories that I read. I made Alice in Wonder- 
land for one. I traced the pictures from the 
illustrations in my book and, cut them out of 
heavy wall paper. (One can use cardboard 
for furniture and scenery and actors, only it's 
more expensive, you know.) I traced most 
of my actors but not all. Some I had to draw 
— I'm not very good at drawing because I 
never had lessons. Mother says, she thinks 



THE MOTION" PICTURE FUN 63 

I could draw if I did have lessons but I just 
do the best I can without." 

"J think," Jimsi insisted, "I think that you 
must know how to draw pretty well to cut 
out outlines of people from paper." 

"Oh, no," contradicted Joyce. "Sometimes 
I can't think the way things ought to look. 
Then I go through some pictures in a book 
and when I find an outline that will be good 
to use, I copy it. Or else, sometimes, I just 
double a piece of thin paper and cut out the 
way little children do to make paper dolls 
when they make both sides exactly alike. 
Mother used to make dolls in strings that way 
when I Avas small." 

"I saw Alice in Wonderland in moving pic- 
tures," said Jimsi. "It was the v crow who 
gave us all tickets once when Aunt Phoebe was 
visiting us. And I saw Cinderella with Mary 
Pickford. Did your 

The little lame girl smiled. "Yes, the Good 
Crow gave me a ticket for it, and Mrs. Smith 
who has an automobile carried me up there. 
Wasn't it lovely!" 

The two little girls gazed into each other's 
eyes, beaming. "After that, I made a play 
of Cinderella," said Joyce. "Mine was just 



64 THE GOOD CROW'S HAPPY SHOP 

a kind of paper doll play, but I had ever so 
much fun doing it. Sometime, I'll show it all 
to you when it is dark and we can use a candle. 
Here's the fairy godmother!" 

She held up a silhouette doll cut with a long 
cloak and a pointed hat. The godmother had 
a wand in her hand. One would have known 
anywhere that it was Cinderella's fairy! 

"Here's the pumpkin," Joyce explained. 
"See! And here's the coach! And here's 
Cinderella before the fairy transformed 
her! (I had to make a second Cinderella 
figure for the play after the fairy touched 
her with the wand.) The way I do this 
is to change the figures very quickly. It 
takes a good deal of skill to act it out right. 
I had long times when I practiced with the 
figures last autumn. Then, when I thought 
I could do it perfectly, I'd give a motion pic- 
ture play for Mother and Daddy in the even- 
ing. Often Miss Phoebe would come in to see 
my plays. She liked them. She used to help 
me sometimes. She thinks it's fun!" 

"We could make Red Riding Hood into a 
motion picture play," suggested Jimsi. "We 
could make the bushes for the woods by cut- 
ting the paper out irregularly like the outline 



THE MOTION PICTURE FUN 65 

of bushes if one saw them in shadow. You 
cut trees, didn't you?" 

The little lame girl assented. "I've cut 
trees and fences and little hills and the out- 
lines of houses and — oh, ever so many things 
more than I can think of. In Alice in Won- 
derland, I really made a rabbit hole and when 
Alice was in the field, I made the funny rabbit 
go walking by and go down it and I made 
Alice follow him and — " 

"How did you ever do it!" exclaimed Jimsi. 
"I don't see how you did that!" 

"You see how I made the field by putting 
bushes and a fence in the frame, don't you?" 

Jimsi nodded. 

''The rabbit hole was a kind of oval with 
the middle part cut out," went on the little 
lame girl. "All I had to do to make the rab- 
bit go down was to pass the rabbit figure right 
into the centre of that and then draw him 
quickly away out of sight. It was the same 
with Alice. And oh, I did have such a splen- 
did Pool of Tears with the mouse swimming 
in it! I made the Walrus and the Carpenter 
and Humpty Dumpty and everything!" 

"What play could we give?" 

"We might make one up!" 



66 THE GOOD CROW'S HAPPY SHOP 

"What would it be about?" 

They wondered. 

"It would be harder to make one up than 
to copy a story," thought Jimsi. 

"I tell you what we could do," suddenly 
flashed Joyce. "It isn't exactly a play, but it 
would be fun even if it wasn't a real story. 
We could make Mother Goose motion pic- 
tures!" 

"That sounds nice," agreed Jimsi. She 
waited for the little lame girl to explain. 

"We'd cut out a scene for Mother Hub- 
bard's house, you know," pursued the little 
lame girl. "Then when we'd made the cup- 
board and the chairs and things, we could cut 
out Mother Hubbard and the dog and make 
a motion picture of it — just a short one." 

"And Jack and Jill Went Down the Hilir 

"And The Lion and the Unicorn I" 

"And Little Bo-Peep and Little Boy Blue, 
too." 

"And— and— " 

But right here, just exactly as Cinderella's 
clock had struck twelve ■, strokes, so the clock 
on the mantel of the little lame girl's fire- 
place struck, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, 
ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding — DING! 



THE MOTION PICTURE FUN 67 

Oh, dear! There it was exactly the time 
when Jimsi had promised Aunt Phoebe to 
come home! 

She jumped from her chair. "Oh, I was 
having such a good time," she declared. "I 
didn't know that it was anywhere near twelve. 
Oh, dear! I hate to say good-bye. I've had 
a perfectly splendid time — but I haven't 
shown you my paper dolls at all ! And the 
crow told me to show you my crow play and 
here I've just been listening to yours! But 
I'll leave my paper dolls for you to look at 
and the toy furniture too. You'll see how it 
is done. Then, some time when I come over, 
I'll take them back. I'll take my Magic Book 
home with me. Good-bye and thank you!" 

"Come back soon," sang the little lame girl 
as Jimsi turned to wave from the street. 
"Come soon!" 

Then Jimsi waved a frantic and happy 
"Yes," and sped back to Aunt Phoebe's. She 
burst into the study where Aunt Phoebe was 
putting away her papers and clearing her 
desk. "Oh, oh," she laughed, "do you know 
what I think, Aunt Phoebe?" 

She waited. 

"7 think," she beamed, "that vour crow is 



68 THE GOOD CROW'S HAPPY SHOP 

about the nicest crow ever! The little lame 
girl told me all about the motion picture play 
he gave her and I didn't even have a chance 
to tell her about the paper dolls ! We hadn't 
half begun to play when the clock struck 
twelve ! Oh, dear ! I didn't want to come right 
away — but I tell you what I'm going to do: 
I'm going to write to Henry and tell him 
about the crow's motion pictures. He'd love 
to make them. He could act out Robinson 
Crusoe and Treasure Island" 



CHAPTER VI 

The Valentines of the Happy Shop 

OF course after the first visit to the little 
lame girl's home, Jimsi made ever and 
ever so many others. They not only 
made paper dolls and paper dolls' furniture 
and paper dolls' dresses and furnished paper 
dolls' houses and had paper doll motion pic- 
tures but they did other things with their 
Magic Books, too. 

Once, they tried kindergarten weaving with 
strips that they cut out of colored papers. 
Another time, they twisted long strips of the 
wall paper to make old-fashioned "lamp- 
lighters" for Joyce's mother to use in lighting 
the fire in the fireplace. It was when they 
were doing this one day that, suddenly, Jimsi 
gave a big bounce out of her chair. She 
jumped up and down and up and down in the 
funniest excited manner, and she kept squeal- 
ing delightedly, "Oh, I've got an idea! I've 
«x)t an i-dea!" 



70 THE GOOD CROW'S HAPPY SHOP 

"What!" exclaimed Joyce. "WHAT IS 
IT?" 

"Um-m! Um-m!" came from the happy 
Jimsi. "Oh, you guess!" 

"I can't guess!" 

"Oh — no, you can't guess! You wouldn't 
think of it ! Oh, it's lovely — splendid — scrum- 
ti-fer-ous!" 

"Well, what is it?" The little lame girl was 
almost impatient but she was as glad as Jimsi 
to prolong the suspense. She knew that Jimsi 
was making the most of her discovery. 

"It couldn't be better if the crow had writ- 
ten about it," she asserted, stopping to sit 
down beside the little lame girl's table. "I'll 
tell you what it is: It's VALENTINES! 
It's VALENTINES! All the beautiful 
fancy papers are just the thing to make val- 
entines! Think how beautiful valentines will 
be when they're made out of the flowered 
papers ! Let's try it ! We can save the val- 
entines till we need them — put them away 
in a box or, I'll tell you what! — Why couldn't 
we send them up to The Children's Home for 
a valentine party? Once I went with Daddy 
to an entertainment at The Children's Home. 



THE VALENTINES 



71 



I felt as if I'd love to do something for the 

children there. It's so — so very unhomelike !" 

"It would be splendid to do that," agreed 




The Valentines and Cards That Were Made out of Wall Paper 

Joyce. "Let's begin right away. You take 
your Magic Book and I'll take mine. You 
can spread newspapers on the floor so we 
won't make a clutter and let's see who can 
make the prettiest. We'll have a valentine 
exhibition afterwards and invite Miss Phoebe 
and the crow." 
"All right!" 



72 THE GOOD CROW'S HAPPY SHOP 

The leaves of the magic wall paper sample 
books turned and turned. There were squeals 
of delight from Joyce and chuckles from 
Jimsi. "Oh, I've found something that will 
be lovely!" one would cry. "Oh, look at this!" 
the other exclaimed. And the little lame girl's 
mother who was, called to admire couldn't tell 
which was the prettiest paper — you see both 
were lovely! 

First the little lame girl found some paper 
that had sprays of yellow roses on it. She 
cut out a big heart that was figured all over 
with them. It really was a beautiful, beauti- 
ful valentine. 

Jimsi suggested that if one were to color 
the edge all around with green crayon, that 
would give the valentine a good finish. One 
could use the crayon to print on the valentine 
too. 

Then, Jimsi improved on Joyce. She folded 
her paper double and cut her heart out double, 
making the top of her valentine heart touch 
the crease of the paper. Her heart opened 
with two sides. Inside, she wrote a verse. 
At the top she tied ribbon bows, using some 
very narrow baby ribbon that she had in the 
paper doll box. 



THE VALENTINES 73 

Joyce made valentines like it only she put 
pictures as well as verses inside the double 
heart. Some of the verses she made up. 
Others, she copied from old valentines that 
were in her scrapbook. 

After they had tried all manner of heart 
valentines, made of plain papers, flowered 
papers, papers with designs, papers with 
figures, striped papers, cross-barred papers, 
they decided to try something different. Jimsi 
cut out a diamond-shaped figure from her 
paper. It was really lovely. It was a 
basket of daisies. The diamond was bordered 
with blue and Jimsi cut diamond-shaped pieces 
of white paper and put them at the back of 
the picture with a verse — the old, old verse 
that everybody changes. It begins: 

" The rose is red, the violet blue, 
Sugar is sweet and so are you." 

Jimsi changed it to: 

" The basket's blue — the daisies white, 
I love you, dear, with all my might." 

It wasn't a very wonderful verse but it was 
a real valentine verse and it fitted the picture 
of the valentine perfectly. 

After Jimsi made her diamond-shaped val- 



74 THE GOOD CROW'S HAPPY SHOP 

entine, Joyce tried to make one. She found 
a cross-pattern of little rosebuds in her Magic 
Book. She cut the valentine out like a 
diamond-shaped book and put leaves in it. 
The leaves were tied in with ribbon. From 
the centre of the front of her valentine, she 
cut out a wee diamond in the paper and it 
made a most fascinating opening into which 
one could peep and see a picture that was 
pasted inside. Of course, she used the crayons 
to finish the edge in color. Jimsi and she dis- 
covered that the crayoning of all rims gave 
finish to the cards. 

And so the play went on and on. They 
made valentines that opened square like books. 
They cut bunches of flowers from the wall 
papers that had large floral patterns and then, 
too, they cut out bits of wall paper shaped 
like baskets. These they filled with wall paper 
flowers and tied at the top of the basket some- 
times bits of narrow baby ribbon that they had 
treasured for doll-play. Oh, they made a 
fine lot of valentines — almost fifty! It didn't 
take long to make a valentine, once one had 
chosen a paper to use for it. 

"Oh, we can make Easter cards too," sug- 
gested Joyce, when the valentine pile was 



THE VALENTINES 75 

grown quite large. She started out to see 
what she could do. Oh, yes! One could 
easily cut out pretty colored Easter eggs 
and paste them on heavy white paper to make 
clusters of dyed eggs. One could cut Easter 
eggs that had flowers on them as one had 
made hearts with flowers in pattern. One 
could cut colored bunnies out of the paper 
too. To do this, Joyce used the brown and 
yellow and the white wall papers in her Magic 
Book. It was fun! 

"We could make birthday cards too," said 
Jimsi. "Only I won't try it because they'd 
be the same as the Easter cards that just have 
flower patterns and open like a book." 

"We could make Hallowe'en favor cards," 
Joyce cried, suddenly. And then, they began 
to cut out witches and cats and jack-o'lanterns. 
Why, one never knew what would come next ! 
The two little girls worked away. "Just for 
fun, let's see what we can do," they agreed. 
So they cut hatchets for Washington's Birth- 
day greetings ; they cut Xew Year's cards and 
flowered Christmas cards. They cut holly 
leaves from green wall paper and made red 
berries for wreathes from the red wall paper; 
they cut Thanksgiving favors too! 



76 THE GOOD CROW'S HAPPY SHOP 

It really isn't possible to tell all that the 
two very busy little girls did do that morning. 
At noon when the clock struck twelve, the j oi- 
liest thing happened. The door-bell rang and 
when Joyce's mother went to answer it, there 
on the door-step was a big market basket with 
a cover on it! When Joyce saw it she de- 
clared , "Well, I know that's from Miss 
Phoebe's crow!" Anybody would have known 
it for on top of the basket was a wee letter. 
The letter was addressed to Jimsi and Joyce. 
It read: 

" Deak Friends of the Magic Book and 
The Happy Shop: 

Picnics don't come in winter usually but 
I am sending you an in-door picnic to-day. 
If you open the big basket you'll find that 
there are some nice picnic-y things inside. 
This is so that Jimsi can stay with Joyce a 
little longer, and also so Joyce can have 
Jimsi a little longer. 

Good-bye, 

Crow. 

P. S. 

In the little bottle is Jimsi's bad medicine. 
She doesn't like to take it but Joyce will 
please see her swallow it after the picnic is 
over. PJease ask Jimsi to bring the picnic 
basket home to The Happy Shop with her 
when it is nap-time. 

C. C." 



THE VALENTINES 



The two little girls cleared the table of the 
valentines and cards. Jimsi ran about pick- 
ing up stray bits of paper that had flown to 
remote places beyond the newspapers. Joyce 
arranged the things on the table. It was 
moved close to her chair. 

My, my! Such tempting sandwiches ! And 
such dainty paper table-cloth and napkins, and 
paper plates! "There's only one thing lack- 
ing," declared Joyce, as she laid an extra plate 
at one end of the table for her mother. "Miss 
Phoebe ought to be here too!" 

"Yes, she ought," assented Jimsi. "Aunt 
Phoebe and the Good Crow!" 



CHAPTER VII 

The Embroidery Patterns in the 
Magic Book 

IN the days that passed after Joyce and 
Jimsi made the valentines and cards, ever 
so many things happened. They played 
other things beside crow plays — checkers and 
dominoes and Messenger Boy games. But, 
after all, the Magic Book with the fun in it 
was best of all. Crow had written them both 
letters and in his last letter he had said: 

" Dear Jimsi: 

Find your own something to do in the 
Magic Book I gave you. If you think, you'll 
find something more that is as jolly as valen- 
tine-making." 

Jimsi went over and over the Magic Book 
in The Happy Shop wondering what she could 
find to do with the papers. It seemed as if 
almost everything must have been done when 
paper doll dresses, paper doll furniture, cards, 
and motion picture play had been done! 

Aunt Phoebe wouldn't even give her a 



80 THE GOOD CROW'S HAPPY SHOP 

hint. "Do as the crow says, dear," she urged. 
"Put on your thinking-cap !" 

"But I can't think!" declared Jimsi. "I 
did make up the valentines !" 

"Try to find something else. The crow and 
I might help but we want you to have the fun 
of discovering all for yourself!" 

But Jimsi couldn't find anything more to 
do. She spent the morning looking over the 
papers and then she wrote a letter to the crow 
and put it in the mail-box. 

" Dear Crow: 

Your Magic Book is like a puzzle and I am 
not a bit good at puzzles. Please tell me 
something nice to do with the colored papers 
of the magic wall paper sample book. 

Lovingly, 

Jimsi. 
P. S. 

I enclose a pretty flower that I cut out for 
you from the Magic Book. I think if I had 
my scrapbook from home I could use these 
flowers for scrap-pictures to paste in it. I 
can't think of anything else." 

To this letter the crow replied the next day 
in a little letter that Jimsi found in the mail- 
box. The crow's letter said: 

" Dear Jimsi: 

Your suggestion about using the flower- 
patterns for scrapbook decorations is good. 



THE EMBROIDERY PATTERNS 81 

But you must puzzle longer and find still 
other jolly plays in your Magic Book. 

Playfully, 

Crow. 
P. S. 

I'm going to give you a perfectly splendid 
surprise. On Friday at four o'clock — 
after your nap — come to The Happy Shop 
and see what it is. It's the nicest that could 
happen, I think. 

Your play friend, 

Caw Caw. 
P. S. 

Xo fair asking Aunt Phoebe to tell what 
the surprise is. She won't say! " 

To this Jimsi replied in another letter to 
the crow: 

" Dear Caw Caw: 

I will try to be good and I won't tease to 
know what the surprise is. I hope it is candy 
or ice cream or something new to play with 
The Magic Book. If I thought you could do 
it, I'd wish that you'd put Mother and Henry 
and Katherine on a magic carpet like the one 
in The Arabian Nights Entertainment. But 
it's no use to ask that for Henry has to go 
to school and Mother couldn't come away 
and leave Katherine. 

Lovingly your little girl, 

Jimsi. 

P. S. 

Aunt Phoebe mustn't think I'm homesick 
but I'd love to see Mother and Henry and 
Katherine ever so much! " 



82 THE GOOD CROW'S HAPPY SHOP 

Then, having mailed this letter in the crow 
mail-box, Jimsi put on her cloak and cap and 
rubbers and went over to see Joyce. Joyce 
had her workbasket out and she had some bits 
of linen in her lap. 

"Hello, Jimsi," she greeted. "I was just 
wishing for you frightfully hard. The crow 
told me to hunt for a new amusement in the 
Magic Book and I found something I'm just 
wild to try. I think it's going to go 
splendidly!" 

"What is it?" Jimsi inquired. "Scrap- 
pictures?" 

"No, not scrap-pictures! It's nicer than 
scrap-pictures! Scrap-pictures aren't any- 
thing T 

"Well, I can't guess it," declared Jimsi. 
"The crow wanted me to find something in 
my Magic Book, but I looked and looked and 
couldn't find anything but scrap-pictures. 
Maybe your book is better than mine. The 
papers that are in your book and my book are 
quite different." 

"Don't you like to do fancy-work?" inquired 
Joyce, suddenly changing- the conversation 
and indicating her workbasket. 



THE EMBROIDERY PATTERNS 83 

"Why, yes," returned Jimsi. "But that 
can't be done with wall paper!" 

"Yes it can!" shouted the little lame girl. 
"I found patterns and patterns for fancy- 
work in my Magic Book, I did!" 

"Well, well, well!" ejaculated Jimsi. "I 
never ! Who would have thought of it ! How 
do you find patterns for fancy-work?" 

"I just look for them," Joyce said. "You 
see, I was puzzle-hunting for something new 
to do with the Magic Book. The crow told 
me to use my own eyes and try to discover my 
own fun. I was turning the leaves of the book 
and all of a sudden I came to this" The lit- 
tle lame girl turned the leaves of her magic 
wall paper book that lay on the big table be- 
side her. "See," she pointed, "there's an em- 
broidery thing to do: it's one of those little 
bows with hanging ends that ladies wear at 
their necks to finish their collars. I could 
trace that all off and transfer it with carbon 
paper to a piece of linen and then do outline 
stitch of the pattern and finish the linen edge 
with button-hole stitch. That's number one!" 

"I could make one for Mother, couldn't I?" 
said Jimsi. "Let's both try it. You can give 
yours to vour mother or to Aunt Phoebe. 



84 THE GOOD CROWS HAPPY SHOP 

Aunt Phoebe wears those bow- things. She 
has ever so many in her bureau drawer. 
She wears them with shirtwaists." 









H §§§mmm- »* *}* 

KV m, M 

HMI •• 


1 K* 1 
■ 9 



Embroidery Patterns and Stenctl Designs That Were Found 
in Wall Paper 

"Well, I haven't finished yet about the pat- 
terns — look here," declared Joyce, and again 
she turned the pages of the Magic Book and 
stopped at a page of colored design. "Here's 
number two!" 

"What is it — I don't know. I can see that 



THE EMBROIDERY PATTERNS 85 

it could be a pattern for embroidery, but — 
Oh, yes, I do know what it is! It is a doily 
pattern! Isn't it?" 

"Hurrah!" sang Joyce. "You guessed! It 
is! All one has to do is to cut out the pattern 
and then take a sheet of carbon paper and 
transfer it to a piece of square linen. If you cut 
the design out larger, it can be used for a linen 
sofa-pillow with the four little clover things 
worked in each corner like the pattern in the 
wall paper. It would be easy embroidery — 
I could do it ! I can't do difficult needle-work. 
And, of course, if one didn't have carbon 
paper or know how to use it, one could copy 
the design with tissue paper and trace it that 
way — sometimes carbon paper that one uses 
makes a blue spot on the cloth, if one leans on 
it with any pressure." 

Jimsi was looking hard at the doily pattern. 
"Do you know about stencils?" she asked. 

"No," replied the little lame girl. "What 
are they?" 

"They're designs that are cut out of stiff 
paper or tin or wood. You take a paint brush 
and paint over the openings and it makes a 
reproduction of the design. / think we could 
cut that pattern out and make a stencil pat- 



86 THE GOOD CROW'S HAPPY SHOP 

tern of it. Maybe the paper's thick enough. 
Let's try!" 

"All right," returned Joyce. "But, first, 
let's see the embroidery. We can try stencils 
afterwards." 

Jimsi agreed. "Let's see the rest." 

"Well, here's number three/' indicated 
Joyce. "That is a cross-stitch pattern. Do 
you do cross-stitch? It's easy to do. That's 
the stitch they use to make pictures on 
samplers. You've seen samplers?" 

"Aunt Phoebe has one in her study. It's 
framed. The little girls used to work them 
long ago. That was the way they learned to 
sew — by making samplers." 

"I can show you cross-stitch," Joyce volun- 
teered. "You won't even have to transfer this 
cross-stitch pattern. It's quite plain even 
though it isn't all little crosses in the wall 
paper. It would be pretty embroidered on the 
end of a guest-room towel. Miss Phoebe 
showed me one she was doing once. It had 
flowers on it something like these." 

"And the cluster of flowers in the wall 
paper might be used on something else." 

"Or one could take one's choice." The lit- 
tle lame girl reached for her tissue paper. 



THE EMBROIDERY PATTERNS 87 

"I'm going to try to transfer the doily pattern 
first. I'll make the doily, I think. I'm going 
to do it and yon can watch, if yon like. I've 
often transferred patterns." 

The little lame girl placed her tissue paper 
upon the design in the wall paper and fol- 
lowed her pencil very carefully along the out- 
line beneath. "One ought to use a soft pen- 
cil," she explained. "The hard pencils don't 
transfer so well." And then she lifted the 
tissue paper up and showed Jimsi the design 
that she had taken off the wall paper in pencil. 
"To trace it," she said, "all one has to do is to 
turn the tissue paper over and go over the 
outline again, placing the first pencil marks 
next the cloth. Then when one goes over the 
tissue paper's pencil outline, the pencil marks 
under the point of the pencil are pressed on 
the cloth — and there's your pattern!" 

"Let's try it," Jimsi urged. "You start the 
doily and I'll make the bow-thing in a pattern 
for Caw Caw to send Aunt Phoebe. Then I 
want to try stencils." 

They were both silently busy for a long 
time. Joyce transferred her design to a piece 
of white linen that her mother had given her. 
Jimsi labored over the neck-bow pattern that 



88 THE GOOD CROW'S HAPPY SHOP 

she wanted to send Aunt Phoebe in a crow 
letter. She copied her design on a sheet of 
white pad paper. 

"What color shall I use to outline my de- 
sign?" suddenly inquired Joyce. "It could 
be almost any color." 

"Why most any color," thought Jimsi. 
"How about white or blue?" 

"We have blue china," mused Joyce. "I'll 
do it in blue. Do you know, if I wanted to, 
I'd turn, it into a top to put on a square pin- 
cushion — I couldr 

The two little girls laughed. Oh, the Magic 
Book was proving very magic indeed! Very 
magic! 

"Now, while you sew, I'm going to try sten- 
cils and see if I can make them out of wall 
paper designs. I think I can! Stencils are 
ever so easy to use. They're splendid fun, if 
you like to paint." 

"Well, go ahead. I'll watch." 

So Jimsi took a piece of the paper that she 
found in the little lame girl's Magic Book. 
"It's queer paper," she mused, "all glossy. I 
think it must be the kind they use in papering 
kitchens and bath-rooms. It's stiff and ex- 
actly right for stencil-cutting. You know 



THE EMBROIDERY PATTERNS 89 

there's a special knife that comes to use for 
cutting stencils but I'm using scissors. I 
think this doesn't need a knife. It's easy to 
cut with scissors if you leave the edges clean- 
cut. I'm leaving the paper and only cutting 
out the form of the design." 

All the eight squares in the wall paper pat- 
tern, Jimsi cut carefully out. Xext, she cut 
around the edge of the tulip-flower that was 
in the center of the pattern design. And she 
cut out the tulip leaves, too. "This is number 
four/' she laughed. "Hooray! It's done! 
Xow tell me where your paints are and I'll 
show you something!" 

The paints were in the big table drawer and 
Jimsi went to fetch water. She asked for a 
bit of blotter and the little lame girl told her 
where to find it. 

"You have to dry your paint brush on the 
blotter before painting stencil designs," ex- 
plained Jimsi, "otherwise the paint runs all 
over. Always use a dry brush — I mean as 
dry as will paint!" She shook her brush at 
Joyce as if she were a teacher at school with a 
pencil trying to drum a lesson into a lazy 
pupil. They smiled at the fun. 

"I'll remember," sang out the little lame 



90 THE GOOD CROW'S HAPPY SHOP 

girl, repeating the lesson, " 'Always use as dry 
a brush as possible when you're painting 
water-color stencils.' Oh, I know my lesson, 
teacher!" 

"Pay attention!" Jimsi made believe she 
was frightfully severe. "Now, watch me!" 
She took the stencil, placed it on top of some 
white pad paper, passed her brush with the 
water-color over the stencil openings and drew 
the stencil off. "There!" she exclaimed, "Isn't 
thatfunl" 

The little lame girl beamed. "Yes," she 
agreed. "I'd like to try that — but why can't 
you cut out your own patterns — I mean pat- 
terns that you make up out of your own head 
when you want to draw?" 

"Well, if you can draw, you can. You see 
the wall paper can be used to make stencils. 
When I was little Mother showed me how to 
cut fancy cut-out designs with scissors by fold- 
ing a square piece of paper over and over and 
then snipping bits off the edge here and there. 
That would make a stencil and one could cut 
one in wall paper like that. All one would 
need to do would be to paint over the openings 
after the paper was smoothed out flat." 

"And can you use the painted stencil pat- 



THE EMBROIDERY PATTERNS 



91 



terns for anything?" inquired the little lame 
girl. 

"Why — just like embroidery patterns," 
said Jimsi. "My teacher at school taught us 
how to use them. We decorated lots of things 
like linen hand-bags, pillows and little fancy 
Christmas gift things. But we used oil paints. 
With water-color, one can stencil packages of 
blotters and tie them together for a gift. One 
can stencil paper picture-frames or letter- 
paper, I should think — oh, most everything." 

"The design you have there's too big for 
letter paper," Joyce objected. "Where can 
one find a small enough stencil for that?" 

"Why, take the tulip right in the center!" 
laughed Jimsi. 

Of course ! Oh, what fun ! 

They tried it with some sheets of the little 
lame girl's letter-paper and it was ever so 
pretty! And it really took no time to paint 
it. Hooray ! 

"Let's write the crow a letter with a stencil 
at the top," suggested Jimsi. 

"And put your pattern in," went on Joyce. 
"The one you were going to give your Aunt 
Phoebe." 



92 THE GOOD CROW'S HAPPY SHOP 

"Let's write a round-robin letter: you write 
one sentence and then I'll write the next!" 
So they began: 

" Dear Good Crow: 

We both found something new in our 
Magic Books to-day. It was Joyce who 
thought of it. But Jimsi carried it further 
than just the embroidery patterns. 

Joyce found embroidery designs that 
could be traced on linen or cloth. Jimsi 
decorated this letter-paper with the stencil 
she cut with wall paper. 

The embroidery pattern we are sending 
you is from us both and came from Joyce's 
Magic Book. 

We send you lots of love, 

Your friends, 

Joyce and Jimsi" 

Joyce addressed the envelope. Jimsi drew 
a crow stamp up in the corner. There never 
could be a real crow letter without a stamp in 
the corner — a stamp of a black bird with a 
letter in his bill. 

"I've only a few minutes before lunch," 
announced Jimsi, glancing at the clock. "I 
won't wait for Cinderella's number to strike. 
I'll run along and then I'll have a chance to 
put this under Aunt Phoebe's plate before she 
comes to the table. Good-bye, dearest! I'm 



THE EMBROIDERY PATTERN'S 93 

so glad you discovered the stencils and the 
patterns." 

"Xo, you discovered the stencils and I dis- 
covered the patterns." 

"Well, crow will be pleased, won't he?" 

'Won't he!" 

"I wonder if crow knew there were patterns 
for embroidery in wall paper?" 

"I wonder!" 

And then Jimsi tore herself away from her 
friend and flung on her cloak and cap. The 
clock in the little lame girl's room was just 
striking the hour of twelve — the hour when 
Cinderella had to give up her ball and run 
home at night, the hour when Jimsi had to 
give up her play and run home in the morn- 
ing. She lifted her rubber in one hand and 
waved it before she put it on. "Cinderella's 
slipper," she smiled. "But it's not made of 
glass and it isn't going to fall off and be left 
for anybody to pick up!" Then she was gone. 



CHAPTER VIII 

The Scrapbooks Crow Told About 

J IMS I had been so busy that morning that 
I do believe she had quite forgotten the 
all-important surprise that the good crow 
promised her in the afternoon. When she 
came home to Aunt Phoebe's and put the 
round-robin letter under Aunt Phoebe's 
luncheon plate, she thought of it. "I wonder 
what it can be," she mused. "Oh, I do won- 
der." Then she flew upstairs to wash the 
paint off her hands before the bell tinkled in 
the hall. She had just time to brush her hair 
and wash up. Then she heard Aunt Phoebe's 
little maid going out to ring, ding-a-ling-a- 
ling! 

Jimsi trotted softly downstairs and peeped 
into the dining-room. No! Aunt Phoebe had 
not found the crow letter yet! She was inno- 
cent about her plate — Xo! she didn't know 
what was under it ! Jimsi almost giggled, but 
she covered the giggle with her napkin and 
made it over into a cough. 



96 THE GOOD CROW'S HAPPY SHOP 

"I'm afraid you've taken cold," suggested 
Aunt Phoebe. "Have you had that cough 
long — I'm sure I should have noticed it" — 

"No. I haven't any cold," protested Jimsi, 
"really I haven't, Aunt Phoebe." Here she 
felt again like giggling over the letter con- 
cealed under Aunt Phoebe's plate and had to 
cough again. 

"Well," declared the play aunt, "I'll have to 
stop that cough! Did you wear your rub- 
bers?" 

"Honest injun!" 

"It isn't anything — just — er — er — Oh, 
nothing!" 

"I hope so." 

The talk drifted to the morning. "What 
did you and Joyce find to do?" asked Aunt 
Phoebe. 

"We embroidered and painted." 

"You always have a nice time there, don't 
you, dear?" 

"Yes, Aunt Phoebe." 

Jimsi wanted to tell all about it, but — how 
could she till after Aunt Phoebe found the 
crow letter. She waited. After what seemed 
a long time, the little maid changed the plates 



THE SCRAPBOOKS 97 

and lo — why there teas a letter right under 
Aunt Phoebe's plate! 

"Oh, the mischief," laughed Aunt Phoebe, 
"I do believe the crow has been here! Jimsi, 
was that why you were coughing, you sinner! 
I think you must have seen the crow leave it. 
Well, you wait! There's a surprise coming 
to you, young lady!" And she tore open the 
letter. "I'll read it to you, aloud, Jimsi," she 
said. "Shall I?" 

It was part of crow play to pretend one 
hadn't any knowledge at all of having been 
the one to write crow letters that one saw 
afterwards. So Jimsi listened to the round- 
robin as Aunt Phoebe soberly read it and ex- 
claimed how very lovely the note-paper was. 
When she came to the pattern, she was really 
delighted. "How clever of the crow," she 
laughed. "I was wanting a new embroidery 
pattern and here the thoughtful crow has 
brought it. How kind of him!" She said she 
was going to transfer it to some linen right 
away. She was so interested that they went 
to look over Jimsi's Magic Book to see if there 
were embroidery patterns and stencil designs 
in that as well as in the little lame girl's book. 

Yes, there were. The two of them became 



98 THE GOOD CROW'S HAPPY SHOP 

so interested that nap-time almost passed. A 
whole fifteen minutes went by without either 
Aunt Phoebe or Jimsi's knowing it. When 
the little desk clock gave a faint chime of two 
Aunt Phoebe jumped. "Oh, dear!" she ex- 
claimed. "I must be off. Oh, Jimsi, how 
could you let me stay ! Oh, you didn't know — 
well, run right upstairs and take that nap and 
don't come down till half -past three, remem- 
ber!" With that Aunt Phoebe dashed into 
her cloak and hat. "I had a most important 
engagement to meet somebody! Oh, dear!" 
And she was gone. 

Jimsi walked upstairs and took off her dress 
and put on her kimono. As her hand snuggled 
under her pillow, it met something long and 
hard. Jimsi grasped it and drew forth — a 
crow present! It was a stick of peppermint 
candy. She couldn't go to sleep at first. She 
lay there with the peppermint stick wondering 
what the crow's splendid suprise was going to 
be. She couldn't guess at all. Finally, she 
remembered that she was honor-bound to go to 
sleep. Of course, one can't always go to sleep 
when one wants to, but Jimsi began to try 
hard. She covered her head with the com- 
forter and cuddled into a more cosy position. 



THE SCRAPBOOKS 99 



She shut her eyes and then, the first thing siie 
knew, Aunt Phoebe was bending over her say- 
ing, "Wake up, Jimsi! Wake up! You've 
had an extra long nap and crow has been to 
The Happy Shop and left you a surprise!" 

So Jimsi jumped into her dress and tore 
down the front stairs two steps at a time. Oh, 
she knew it was going to be a splendid sur- 
prise — perfectly splendid! But she really 
wasn't expecting the kind of a surprise that 
awaited her, for as she opened the doors of 
The Happy Shop who should pop up from 
behind a screen but Mother and Henry and 
little sister Katherine! Oh, Oh! 

What a hugging there was! Why, they 
had to hug twice around and even Henry, who 
didn't like to be kissed, seemed so happy to 
see Jimsi that he had to kiss her, too! How 
lovely and how lovely and how lovely! Oh, 
what fun! Now, Mother and Henry and 
Jimsi's little sister could all see The Happy 
Shop and help find play in the Magic Book. 
Hadn't Jimsi just been longing to have them 
all right there ! Hadn't she written them long 
letters about it! Oh, this was almost too good 
to be true! 

"But how did you happen to come?" in- 



100 THE GOOD CROW'S HAPPY SHOP 

quired Jimsi. "Doesn't Henry have to go to 
school?" 

"Well, we all wanted to see our Jimsi," 
Mother explained. "I couldn't come without 
Katherine, and Henry wanted to see you so 
badly that I decided one day out of school 
wouldn't hurt if he made up the work. So you 
can show us the crow plays and the Magic 
Book, Jimsi!" 

"I want to see Crow!" urged little sister 
Katherine. So Jimsi took them to the shelf 
in Aunt Phoebe's study where her big crow 
perched on the twig. The shelf was so high 
that baby Katherine thought the crow was 
really alive. He didn't look stuffed. Even 
Henry was almost deceived. "Isn't he really 
true?" he kept asking. 

"Of course he's true," returned Jimsi. 
"Haven't we always played crow ever since 
we can remember?" 

But she didn't refer to Aunt Phoebe's crow 
as just a stuffed crow. He was a play crow, 
you know. There is a great distinction, even 
though you may not know it. 

Henry wasn't interested in paper dolls or 
paper doll furniture. But Katherine was. 



THE SCRAPBOOKS 101 

Henry sniffed. "Oh, I don't care for Magic 
Books that make paper dolls," but Katherine 
wanted to look at them all. So did Mother. 
Finally, Mother decided to take Katherine 
over to the conch and let Jimsi and Henry 
play the shadow motion pictures — at least ex- 
amine them. Katherine sat on a stool beside 
Mother, and Mother watched to see that no 
paper dolls were torn by clumsy little fingers 
that didn't know how easily paper tears. 

Aunt Phoebe had brought her fancy work 
pattern down to show Mother. She had a 
work-basket and was prepared to start her 
fancy work. 

Oh, but wasn't this splendid! 

They had afternoon tea out in The Happy 
Shop, too. Jimsi and Henry and Katherine 
had cocoa — but Mother and Aunt Phoebe had 
tea, and the Good Crow had to be brought in 
and put close to the tea-table. Aunt Phoebe 
talked for him as she had on the night of 
Jimsi 's arrival. And the crow always said, 
"Caw-caw," when he was addressed by any 
member of the circle. He was a beautiful play 
crow. Katherine would have liked to kiss him, 
but kissing him as hard as Katherine kissed 



102 THE GOOD CROW'S HAPPY SHOP 

would hurt, Aunt Phoebe explained. She let 
the baby stroke the glossy plumage and say, 
"Pretty, pretty!" (You know an ordinary 
crow isn't exactly pretty, but his plumage is a 
beautiful satiny black — all glossy. And Jimsi 
insisted that Caw Caw was beautiful.) 

Henry said he didn't think Caw Caw was 
pretty, but he thought the crow was good, all 
right. Henry, you see, was ever so interested 
in the motion pictures crow had invented, and 
he had to fix all the different plays that Jimsi 
had cut out and arrange the scenery on 
the motion picture screen. He thought this the 
greatest amusement. He wanted to try the 
play with a candle. Jimsi and he went off to 
a dark corner to work the motion pictures and 
they played Alice in Wonderland and made 
the White Rabbit run about in a most realistic 
way. Then, before they knew it was so late, 
they were called to dinner. How time does 
fly! 

Just when they had finished dinner and 
desert was being served, Henry happened to 
look up at the crow perched on the shelf where 
Aunt Phoebe had put him — and if the crow 
didn't have a letter in his bill! 

"Why, look — look!" exclaimed Henry. 



THE SCRAPBOOKS 103 

"Look!" There was nothing to do, once hav- 
ing seen it, but to jump up from the table right 
then and there to go get that letter. 

It proved to be a letter to Henry. He read 
it aloud. 




The Scrapbooks That the Children Made with Wall Paper Covers 

" Dear Henry: 

There's something you will like to make in 
the Magic Book. You can make a scrap- 
book. Use the heavy wall paper for the 
cover of the book and cut the scrapbook 
leaves from heavy Manilla wrapping paper. 
Aunt Phoebe has wrapping paper. Ask her 
for it. 



104 THE GOOD CROW'S HAPPY SHOP 

To make a scrapbook, take a big full- 
sized sheet from the Magic Book of wall 
paper. (I'm sure Jimsi will let you choose 
the paper you like best.) Fold the sheet 
together and clip the edges evenly. Glue the 
double edges fast together and let them dry. 

While the cover is drying, fold your Ma- 
nilla wrapping paper several times to fit the 
cover. Then cut the sheets and trim them 
properly to fit. 

Next, place the cover flat and all the 
leaves on top of it. 

Make two holes with an awl or a puncher. 
Let the holes go through leaves and cover. 
Then string a tape or ribbon through the 
holes and tie the cover on. Then fold cover 
and leaves together and the scrapbook is 
done! 

These scrapbooks are very nice to use for 
stamp collections. You can paste cards in 
them too — postal-cards, if you like. You 
can also use them to make botanical scrap- 
books in summer. I think, however, that 
you'll like to use yours for stamps. 

Jimsi will give you enough paper to make 
a photograph album too, I'm sure. You can 
put your snap shot Brownie pictures in it. 

To make this, use smaller folded Manilla 
sheets and use a border pattern of wall paper 
from the Magic Book. 

Try it! 

Your Crow. 

P. S. 

Tell Mother she can make a scrapbook 
too. She will find this kind of scrapbook very 
useful for keeping magazine clippings, re- 
ceipts for cooking, and odds and ends. 



THE SCRAPBOOKS 105 

P. S. P. S. 

You might make one for your daddy. 
He could keep newspaper clippings in his. 

P. S. P. S. P. S. 

Jimsi can make her own and put anything 
she likes in it. 

Caw Caw." 



At the close of this letter, everybody just 
laughed. It was so funny! But everybody 
was very anxious to try the scrapbooks, so they 
didn't wait for morning. Henry made him- 
self one that very night after dinner. His 
was made of beautiful red paper. It was 
most handsome! He made one for Mother 
and one to take home to Father from the crow. 
He made one, too, for baby Katherine to put 
picture cards into. Oh, I tell you Henry 
worked hard. He said he'd make one for 
Jimsi to carry to the little lame girl, but Jimsi 
said she thought Joyce might enjoy the fun of 
making her own. So Henry started to make 
himself another — when bed-time came! He 
declared he'd finish it in the morning. It was 
a very splendid scrapbook — or it was going to 
be — made with three whole sheets of nice fresh 
wrapping paper cut to be eight by fifteen 
inches. But he went off to bed to dream of it. 



106 THE GOOD CROW'S HAPPY SHOP 

Oh, Caw Caw knew what children like to 
play! 

They all said, "Good-night, Crow," after 
they had kissed Aunt Phoebe and Mother 
good-night, and then all went to dream of Caw 
Caw making magic plays with the sample book 
of wall paper. 



CHAPTER IX 

The Pin-Wheels, Birds, Butterflies 

THE next morning bright and early be- 
fore breakfast, Henry was downstairs in 
The Happy Shop busy with the finish- 
ing of last night's scrapbook. It had a hand- 
some cover of dark wall paper with a design of 
large and splendid flowers and leaves colored 
purple and red and green and dull blue. To 
tie the cover on, Henry was using strands of 
raffia of the same shades. Aunt Phoebe did 
basketry and had quite a big basket full. The 
children were always welcome to use it. He 
was so interested that he just said, "Oh, hello, 
Jimsi!" when Jimsi came down later, just be- 
fore the breakfast hour. She had come as soon 
as she was dressed for she wanted to look in 
the mail-box and see if there was a crow letter 
there. Henry had quite forgotten to look. 
He thought of nothing at all but his grand 
scrapbook. 

Jimsi reached for the crow mail-box. Sure 



108 THE GOOD CKOW'S HAPPY SHOP 

enough, there was a letter in it. Hurrah! 
"Oh, look, Henry!" she exclaimed. "See!" 

Henry jumped up and came to examine the 
mail-box, and he took the little blue envelope 
out. Oh, it was for baby Katherine this time ! 
Nothing for Jimsi! Nothing for Henry! 

They dropped the letter back into the box 
again. "Won't it be fun to see her when she 
finds it?" laughed Jimsi. "I wonder what's in 
Katherine's letter?" 

"Katherine can't use scissors very well," 
Henry suggested doubtfully. "She can cut 
some, but not very well. She's learned some 
things in kindergarten. I hope the crow has 
told her something that you and I can do, too. 
I have made enough scrapbooks for now and 
I can't begin to stick my stamps and things in 
till I go home, Monday. What are you going 
to use your scrapbook for, Jimsi?" 

Jimsi thought. "Oh, I'm going to have 
more than one," she answered. "The scrap- 
books don't cost anything and I can have as 
many as I like. I like them better than the 
ones that are sold in shops. They are prettier 
and they have more leaves. Once I wanted 
to buy a scrapbook and when I priced it, it 
cost two dollars! It was a big scrapbook like 



BIRDS, BUTTERFLIES 109 

the one you are making. Of course, I didn't 
buy it. I couldn't, for there wasn't that 
amount of money in my bunny-bank on the 
mantel-shelf at home." 

"I've one dollar and seventy-three cents 
saved in my bank," Henry volunteered. "I've 
earned twenty-eight cents just lately. Once 
it was for doing errands for the lady next door 
and once I swept the snow off the walk for 
her, too. She said I did it well and asked me 
to come next time it snowed." 

"Boys can always earn money," sighed 
Jimsi. "It's different with girls. Xobody 
asks them to shovel snow or do errands, if 
there is a boy anywhere around. I could 
sweep snow!" 

"I know," agreed Henry. "But there are 
things girls can do." 

"What?" 

"Oh, girls can amuse little babies and take 
them riding in a go-cart and see that they are 
happy while the babies' mother goes away out- 
doors for an hour. Mrs. Brown said she 
wanted a little girl who was a good re- 
sponsible girl to do that for her. And once 
when Birdie Smith hurt her eyes studying 
with the sun shining on her book and 



110 THE GOOD CKOW'S HAPPY SHOP 

the doctor wouldn't let her use them, 
Mrs. Smith said she would be glad to pay 
some boy or girl to come and read aloud to 
Birdie — because Birdie was always asking to 
be read to and she had work to do and couldn't 
read to her all the time." 

"I could take care of babies," Jimsi thought. 
"Having Katherine helps ever so much. I'd 
love to wheel a baby in a carriage out-doors, 
if its mother would trust me — I'd like it so 
well I'd do it without money." 

"That's the way with girls. They aren't 
businesslike," sniffed Henry. "It's business 
to pay for errands and shoveling snow and it's 
business to be paid for taking care of babies, 
I think." He tied the raffia that bound his 
scrapbook at the back of the cover and held it 
up. "I've finished," he smiled. "See!" 

"But if one likes to do things, one hates to 
be paid for doing them," Jimsi protested. "I 
love to play with little bits of children, I do." 

"Well, I'm only telling you how girls can 
earn money," said Henry. "You don't need 
to take it, if you don't want to. My, but I'm 
hungry! Isn't it most time for pancakes? 
Aunt Phoebe said we were going to have pan- 
cakes this morning." 



BIRDS, BUTTERFLIES 111 

"And real maple syrup — yum-yum!" 

"Who said yum-yum" called Aunt 
Phoebe's voice. "Breakfast's ready! Henry, 
will you get the big dictionary in my study 
and put it in Katherine's chair for her to sit 
on. There isn't any high chair in our house. 
Crow doesn't need one." 

Off went Henry and Jimsi to do the errand 
between them. Mother and Aunt Phoebe and 
Katherine were waiting when the children 
brought the dictionary for Katherine to sit on. 

"Nobody looked in the mail-box," sug- 
gested Jimsi. "Somebody ought to." 

"Shall I go?" asked Mother. 

"Shall I?" inquired Aunt Phoebe inno- 
cently. 

"Me?" squealed Katherine joyously. "Me!" 

"I'll get the box," volunteered Henry, the 
man of the household. "You wait." And up 
he darted — off to The Happy Shop. He came 
panting back and put the box on the table. 

"Who's the letter for?" everybody asked at 
once. 

Henry waved his hand majestically toward 
the baby. Everybody laughed. Katherine 
chuckled. She reached for the little cardboard 



112 THE GOOD CROW'S HAPPY SHOP 

box and extricated the tiny envelope. "Ou!" 
she squealed delightedly. "Mamma, read it." 
So Mother broke open the wee envelope 
with its crow stamp on it, just as crow always 
wrote his letters and she read: 

" Dear Katherine, 

Jimsi and Henry have found lots of nice 
things to do in The Happy Shop's Magic 
Book of wall paper. I am going to tell you 
some jolly things to play with the papers 
too. I wonder if you wouldn't like to make 
pin-wheels, first of all. Wall paper makes 
wonderfully lovely pin-wheels. (Maybe 
Jimsi and Henry know how to make pin- 
wheels — ") 

"No, we don't," interrupted Jimsi and 
Henry. But Mother went on: 

" To make pin- wheels, just cut out a 
square of wall paper about seven inches 
square. Cut each corner upward toward the 
centre of the square till within a half inch 
of it. Then fold every other corner of the 
cut paper over toward the centre and run a 
pin through. Fasten the end of the pin 
point in a rubber at the end of some pencil or 
little stick and the pin-wheel is done. If you 
hold the pin-wheel out straight and run 
along fast as you can, the pin-wheel will 
turn like the arms of a wind-mill. It's fun. 
Try it. 

After you make one pin-wheel and see 
how it goes, take two differently colored 
squares of fancy papers — red and blue or 





The Butterfly Cut from Folded Paper, the Basket Cut from Folded Paper 





The Bird Cut from Folded Paper with Wings Cut from a Second Piece 
of Folded Paper 



Diagram 2 



114 THE GOOD CROW'S HAPPY SHOP 

green and yellow or plain and flowered and 
put these together, color outside. Then fold 
the pin-wheel and see what lovely play- 
things you can make. It might be nice to 
make a pin- wheel store." 

"Oil!" chuckled Katherine. "Store!" 

"We'll cut round disks for money — yellow 
paper for gold, silver striped paper for nickles, 
dimes, quarters and fifty-cent pieces. We'll 
make green paper bills — " 

"And write on each how much each is — " 

"We can do it with crayon — " 

"Hush!" sighed Mother. "I want to read 
Katherine's crow letter. Listen!" 

" There are other things beside pin- 
wheels that you can make — how about 
bright-colored butterflies? The papers that 
are yellow, blue, green, red, purple make 
lovely butterflies. You cut them like this. 
Fold your paper double and cut. And then 
unfold it and you will have a butterfly! Tie 
a dark thread to the upper part of the 
butterfly's body and run with the end of 
the thread in your hand. The butterfly will 
fly behind you, if you trot as fast as feet can 
go. It is nice to play this outdoors in the 
garden for you can make your butterfly 
alight on shrubs and bushes." 

"Oh," interrupted Jimsi, "we can make 
some butterflies for Katherine out of the wall 
papers that have plain patterns on them. Just 



BIRDS, BUTTERFLIES 115 

keep the patterns even and cut. That will 
make lovely wings! I want to try it — " 

"Shoo!" cried Mother. "I want to finish 
the letter. My coffee is growing cold. 
Shoo!" Again she read: 

" I'll tell you another toy little girls and 
big girls and even boys can make. It's a 
bird with wings — " 

"A crow!" chuckled Henry. "Only one 
would need black paper — " 

"Take dark paper and crayon it black," 
cried Jimsi. 

"Hush!" Mother began again. "If any- 
body interrupts again, we'll wait and finish 
the letter after breakfast," said she. So every- 
body hushed right up and waited, of course. 

" The birds are cut from pieces of paper 
that are cut oblong and folded corner to 
corner. Draw the bird's side outline with 
crayon on the white part of the paper and 
cut the bird out with scissors. This gives 
the body without wings. 

To make wings for the bird, fold a paper 
somewhat smaller than the first and cut 
wings, leaving the folding of the paper for- 
ward instead of at top. 

Cut a slit in this forward part of the wings 
and slip them over the bird's body. Tie 
a thread to the top of the bird's body and see 
how well you can make it fly. 

I think you'll have enough play now to 



116 

last a long long time, Katherine dear. I 
must stop. Goody-bye. 

With a hug from 

Crow. 
P. S. 

Why don't you all go over to the little lame 
girl's home this morning and have Kather- 
ine's store there. I think she'd like it. 

C. C" 

Mother put the crow's long letter on the 
table beside Katherine's plate. She took up 
her coffee-cup and breakfast started. All the 
splendid pancakes had been getting cold! 
Aunt Phoebe had to send them out and get 
hot ones. And all because of Crow's letter! 

"I'll make that money. I can do it," Henry 
declared. "While I'm making the money, you 
and Joyce and Katherine can make the birds 
and pin- wheels and butterflies. I'm going to 
make splendid paper money — whole bags full ! 
Oh! I can keep some to carry home to play 
store, too!" 

"I don't want any more breakfast," sighed 
Jimsi. "I want to begin right away." But, 
nevertheless, she did eat more hot pancakes 
and more than just two. 

"Where's crow?" asked baby Katherine, 
pointing to the shelf where Aunt Phoebe's 
crow stood last night. "Where's crow?" 



BIRDS, BUTTERFLIES 



117 



"Oh, he flies away during the day," volun- 
teered Jimsi. "He pretends fly away. Ask 
Aunt Phoebe where he is!" 




The Bird, the Butterflies and the Pin-wheels That Were Made 
Out of Wall Paper 



But Aunt Phoebe was making-believe about 
crow and she wouldn't tell at all— no, not at 
all. 

They tried to tease her — (It isn't at all nice 
to tease, but boys will do it.) "Aunt Phoebe„ 



118 THE GOOD CROW'S HAPPY SHOP 

how could the crow hug Katherine?" giggled 
Henry. "I'd like to see crow do it!" 

"He could pretend to in a crow letter," an- 
swered Aunt Phoebe demurely. "Henry, if 
you don't look out, you won't get any new 
crow letters. If you don't want to believe in 
my nice, old, stuffed black crow, Caw Caw, 
give me back all your splendid scrapbooks 
that he told you how to make." 

"Oh, I believe in make-believe," Henry 
laughed. "But, Aunt Phoebe, it's so funny! 
The idea of crow's hugging Katherine with his 
two claws! Oh, oh! How could he stand?" 

"He might sit on his tail and do it," an- 
swered Aunt Phoebe. "Crows don't usually 
sit on their tail, but Caw Caw might. He's 
pretend." 

"Caw Caw's all right," declared Jimsi. "I 
think he can do most anything. He's the 
cleverest crow that ever, ever was. There 
never could be another like him, I know!" 

"Think of The Happy Shop and all the fun 
of the Magic Book!" smiled Mother. 

"Dear Aunt Phoebe," beamed Henry. 
"Please, I do want another crow letter. Tell 
crow to write soon!" 

But Aunt Phoebe shook her finger at 



BIRDS, BUTTERFLIES 119 

Henry. "Naughty," said she. "The next 
crow letter shall go to somebody else, not you!" 
She smiled. 

By that time breakfast was over and the 
children rushed off to The Happy Shop to 
find the Magic Book and try the new crow 
play for little Katherine. 



CHAPTER X 

The May Baskets 

JUST as soon as little Katherine had tried 
her pin-wheels indoors, Henry and Jimsi 
decided that outdoors where there is wind, 
pin-wheels would turn much better and faster, 
so the children jumped into cloaks and caps 
and made for the garden. It was still too 
early to go over to see the little lame girl. 
They all decided to wait and make the crow's 
butterfly and bird toys when Joyce could try 
them, too. But the pin-wheels were really out- 
door toys and one had to rim about to make 
them go. 

Katherine had two pin-wheels, one in each 
hand. One was blue and pink and the other 
was made of flowered paper with green paper 
inside. Henry had a red and brown pin- 
wheel that he had made very large indeed. 
Jimsi's pin-wheel was an attempt to be "dif- 
ferent," she said. She had tried to cut the 
edges in scallop. There was also a rosebud 
cut from wall paper, and it came at the center 



122 THE GOOD CROW'S HAPPY SHOP 

of her pin- wheel under the pin. They all had 
great fun running about the garden in the 
crisp winter morning air, each trying to see 
which pin-wheel would turn best. Katherine's 
flowered pin-wheel, it was agreed, was a huge 
success. Then, Jimsi's broke. She had to go 
indoors to mend it and when she came out, she 
had her Magic Book rolled up tight under her 
arm. "We can go over to see Joyce, Mother 
says," called Jimsi from the door-step. 
"Hurry up!" 

So off they trotted. 

As Jimsi had forgotten all about the crow's 
surprise when she and Joyce were busy mak- 
ing stencils and embroidery patterns, it was 
perfectly unexpected for Henry and Kath- 
erine to appear behind Jimsi that morning 
when the door opened and let the children into 
the room where the little lame girl's chair was 
rolled into the bow-window beside the big 
table. Why, at first Joyce just stared and 
then, laughing, she held out a hand to each. 
"Oh, I know now who you are! You're Kath- 
erine and Henry," she beamed. "But I didn't 
know you were coming. Jimsi never told me 
there was going to be such a lovely party!" 

"Oh," Jimsi laughed. "Your patterns and 



THE MAY BASKETS 123 

things were so interesting, I forgot to tell you 
crow promised me a big surprise. I forgot all 
about it till I went back to Aunt Phoebe's. 
In the afternoon, I went down to The Happy 
Shop and I found that crow had brought 
Mother and Henry and sister Katherine for 
the surprise." 

"Well, well!" laughed the little lame girl, 
"and you didn't suspect at all?" 

"Not a weeny bit!" 

"And it was a surprise for me, too," de- 
clared Joyce. "Now, what are we going to 
do to have fun this morning?" 

Little Katherine held out her two pin- 
wheels. "You can make these," she suggested. 

"Let's try birds and butterflies! Oh, Joyce, 
the crow sent Katherine a letter this morning 
and it told how to make those pin-wheels and 
birds and butterflies, too," explained Jimsi. 
"And Henry said he'd make toy money for a 
store and we could play that, too!" 

"I wish it was real money," Henry joked, 
as he snipped big pieces from Jimsi's wall- 
paper book — big pieces of silver satin stripe 
for silver money. "I'm going to make five 
and ten dollar bills next. Oh, vouwait!" He 



124 THE GOOD CROW'S HAPPY SHOP 

sat down on the floor and began to cut regard- 
less of the floor. 

"Look out," sang Jimsi. "Put a paper 
down, Henry! Joyce and I are careful. It 
makes ever so much muss to clear up when you 
cut like that. Here's a newspaper." So 
Henry meekly apologized. "I wasn't think- 
ing," he explained. 

Joyce and Jimsi began on butterflies. 
When they had made ever so many, they made 
birds — whole flocks of birds: bluebirds, crows, 
robins, catbirds, and most every kind of bird 
one could think of, as well as a good many 
pink and yellow birds that nobody could iden- 
tify as ever having lived anywhere at all. 

They pretended that the big table was a 
store and Henry brought all manner of things 
from around the room to put on it and sell, he 
said. Joyce was store-keeper. As for baby 
Katherine, she preferred to play on the floor 
with the paper toys, and she played in her own 
way. 

Henry showed the little lame girl about 
how to make scrapbooks and they were busy 
choosing a paper for her first scrapbook when 
suddenly the door-bell rang. Joyce's mother 



THE MAY BASKETS 125 

went to the door. There was nobody there! 
Then her eyes suddenly fell to the door- 
step and there, sure enough, was a crow 
letter! Beside it was — why, it was the cutest 
of paper baskets! It was filled with cut 
flowers. The letter was for Joyce. The 
basket that came with it was, of course, for 
her, too. 

Why, the basket was made out of wall 
paper! Would you believe it? Yes, it was! 
But the flowers in it were really, really true — 
they weren't wall-paper flowers. Joyce took 
them from the basket and Jimsi went for a 
vase. "Why, we can make baskets like that," 
she declared. "I think crow's letter must be 
about it." She tore open the envelope. She 
glanced over the letter. Xo. All crow said 
was : 

" Dear Joyce: 

Maybe you'd like this basket of flowers. 
I made the basket part with my book of 
magic paper just to send these flowers to 
you. 

Your loving 

Crow Coir Caw." 

"I'll tell you what," Joyce suggested. "Let's 
each take some paper — the very heavy wall 



126 THE GOOD CROW'S HAPPY SHOP 

paper — and we'll see which one of us can make 
the best basket. We'll try to make them like 
this. This one is cut from a piece of folded 
paper that is double. Its sides are sewed — 
see! I'll give you each a needle. This basket 
is sewed with a strand of raffia, and the sides 
are buttonholed with it, but we can baste our 
baskets with big strands of colored darning- 
cotton or shoe-button thread. Let's try it!" 

All but baby Katherine tried it. She was 
playing with the butterflies on the rug by the 
fire. The pussy-cat was purring there. She, 
too, liked to play with the butterflies. Maybe 
it was because Katherine dragged them over 
the rug on a string as no butterflies ever flew! 
But she had a good time just the same. 

"We could make May baskets like this," 
Jimsi suggested. "I'm going to make some 
next spring. I'm going to show my teacher 
at school how to make these baskets. I think 
she'd like to know how. And the kindergarten 
teacher — Sister's teacher — she'd like to know 
how, too. She could show the children how to 
make others like them." 

"We could make them for the Christmas 
tree this Christmas," declared Henry. "Of 



THE MAY BASKETS 



iZ 



course those for the Christmas tree would need 
to be much smaller." 

"They would be cute for doll baskets, when 
we made them small," beamed Jovce. 




The May Baskets and the Flower-pot Cover That Were Made of 

Wall Paper 

At the mention of dolls, Henry sniffed, "I 
don't play dolls," said he. "I like baskets that 
are useful. I tell you what you can do to earn 
money, girls! You can make these baskets to 
hold candy and sell home-made candy in 
them." Really. Henry thought he had of- 



128 THE GOOD CROW'S HAPPY SHOP 

fered a valuable suggestion! Both little girls 
laughed. 

"They wouldn't want to eat the kind I 
make!" chuckled Jimsi. "Beside that I'd 
probably eat it up first. And Mother doesn't 
like to have us make candy. But I'll tell you 
what: we could make them for fairs and ba- 
zaars if we were asked to give things to sell. 
The candy booth could use them. We could 
make ever so many in a short time. Why, it 
only took a minute to cut this one out and 
sew it!" She held up a dainty pink basket 
made of striped paper almost as stiff as bristle- 
board. "I suppose this paper's ever so ex- 
pensive, if it's used on walls," she said. "The 
heavy paper always is, you know. But there 
is a whole half of my Magic Book full of 
heavy paper samples." 

Baby Katherine liked the baskets. She put 
her butterflies inside. Henry carried his 
paper money in his. Jimsi cut paper flowers 
and put them in hers. 

"I'll send back the prettiest I can to Aunt 
Phoebe by you," said Joyce. "It'll show her 
that we used the crow play right away. And 
I'll put a crow letter inside." 

After that was done, the clock began to 



THE MAY BASKETS 129 

strike the Cinderella hour and the children, 
after hastily picking up careless scraps of 
paper for the little lame girl, started back for 
Aunt Phoebe's, promising to come back to 
play again that afternoon, if nothing pre- 
vented. 



CHAPTER XI 

How the Magic Book Helped 
at School 

THE Good Crow, Caw Caw, must have 
been very busy writing letters and 
making things that Saturday, for 
hardly had the children sat down to luncheon, 
and hardly had Henry undone his napkin 
than — out dropped a crow letter. Oh, oh, 
my! How funny! 

And hardly had Jimsi lifted her napkin to 
take it out of the ring than lo — there, under 
it, was another crow letter. Oh, oh, my! 

And then, as Mother took Katherine's nap- 
kin to fasten it on there appeared a crow 
letter addressed to Katherine lying on the 
luncheon cloth. 

"Did you ever!" whistled Henry. "I 
thought your crow was never going to write 
to me again, Aunt Phoebe." 

"I didn't say that," twinkled Aunt Phoebe's 
voice. "I said you'd better look out. Beside 
that, Henry dear, the crow knows that you 



132 THE GOOD CROW'S HAPPY SHOP 

and Mother and Katherine have to go back to 
the city tonight. You've got to go back 
to school on Monday." 

"Oh, dear," moaned Henry. "I want to 
stay here." 

"Me, too," lisped Katherine. 

"Isn't Jimsi coming home with us?" urged 
Henry. "She looks all right. I don't think 
she looks sick any more. She doesn't act so." 

"I feel all right," admitted Jimsi. "I don't 
need to take naps any more while I stay, Aunt 
Phoebe. Mother said so. I don't want 
Mother and Henry and Katherine to go back 
because I shall miss them, but I'd just as lieve 
not go back to school yet. I like to be with 
you, Aunt Phoebe, and I do love the Good 
Crow's Happy Shop and the Magic Book! 
My book's really growing quite thin. I'll soon 
need another — how'll I ever do without a 
Magic Book when this is gone?" 

"Soon Christmas will be coming," said 
Mother. "You'll come home just before 
Christmas, Jimsi dear. And I think Aunt 
Phoebe '11 come with you. After Christmas, 
you'll be going back to school again, and 
there'll be an end to bad medicine and the 
peppermints that come after it." 



HOW THE MAGIC BOOK HELPED 



133 



"Hooray!" whooped Henry. 
Jimsi, however, was doubtful. She didn't 
care to lose freedom that she had been having. 




Here Are School Books With Pretty Covers Made to Keep 

Them Clean. These Are the Books the Children 

Covered, and the Book-marker, Picture 

Frame and Notebook Are Here too 

Yet she liked school. "I'll be glad the medi- 
cine's gone, but I'll want Aunt Phoebe and 
her crow play ever so much," she declared. 
"I'm having such a good tune here — and there 
is Joyce." 



134 THE GOOD CROW'S HAPPY SHOP 

"Well," smiled Mother, "don't borrow 
trouble. "Today there is a whole long after- 
noon to play with Henry and Joyce and 
Katherine. And you have none of you read 
your crow letters yet." 

"I was keeping mine for the desert," joked 
Jimsi. "Henry, you found your letter first, 
so you read yours first." 

Henry was deep in a slice of bread and but- 
ter, but he put it down and took up the sheet 
he had laid down when they had begun dis- 
cussing Jimsi's going-home. He read: 

" Dear Bad Boy: 

You deserved to be punished for having 
laughed at me to-day but I know it was just 
fun so I'll forgive you and, just because you 
were so naughty, I will give you something 
useful to do. I won't tell you about any 
new play this time. You don't deserve it! 

I'm going to tell you something you can 
do for Aunt Phoebe: she has some books 
that she wants to have covered very neatly 
in paper. I should advise you to cover some 
of your school-books the same way when 
you go back to school. It saves the books 
and keeps the covers fresh. (I know you 
like to keep yours and sell them when you 
go into the next class.) 

This is what you do: you take the book 
you wish to cover and lay it flat with cover 
open upon a sheet of thin wall paper taken 
from the Magic Book. 



HOW THE MAGIC BOOK HELPED 135 

Next, you fold the paper to one side 
cover, making it all flat and very neatly 
turning the edges of the paper over one cover. 
Cut the paper at each corner of the book to 
help fold more easily. Fold in under the 
back of your book the extra strip that is not 
needed at the back of the cover. 

If you have fancy labels that may be 
glued on, paste them on the front cover and 
write the name of the book as well as your 
own name on them. 

Your funny Crow. 

P. S. 

You'll find five books of Aunt Phoebe's 
that need new fresh covers. They are in 
The Happy Shop on the shelf beside the crow 
mail-box. 

C. C." 

"What a good idea," declared Mother. "I 
think I'll have some books to cover when I 
get home, too, Henry." 

"But what are we going to do, Aunt 
Phoebe, my Magic Book is getting so thin? 
There aren't many more pages in it — only 
about twenty. I counted. How'm I going to 
get another — and Henry wants one, too." 

"Oh, everybody who wants a Magic Book 
can very easily have one," declared Aunt 
Phoebe. "Just go to some store where they do 
paper-hanging and ask if you can have an old 
sample book of last year's styles in wall paper. 



136 THE GOOD CROW'S HAPPY SHOP 

The styles change almost every year. Every 
year the men have new books of styles. Their 
shop is full of them. These old ones are use- 
less when the new ones come in and the paper- 
hangers are glad to get rid of the old paper 
books. Most always, these are thrown away. 
Even if you lived away off in the country, 
there would be some town near-by where you 
could get a sample-book of wall paper, if you 
were to ask. And if any child wants one, 
there are more than enough pretty Magic 
Books in the world to go around — more than 
one apiece." 

"Well, I'm going to try to get one on my 
way home from school Monday," said Henry. 
"I pass by a paperhanger's shop. I've seen 
the books in his window, but I never knew 
they could be used for play before crow told 
Jimsi of The Happy Shop." 

"I'll get one there when I come home, too," 
Jimsi laughed. 

"Me, too!" cooed Katherine, though she 
only understood dimly what it was they were 
talking about. She had been begging Mother 
to read her letter aloud. 

"Well, you read Katherine's letter first, 
Mother dear," urged Jimsi. "I'll wait be- 



HOW THE MAGIC BOOK HELPED 137 

cause Katherine is so little she gets impatient. 
What does Katherine's letter say?" 
Then, Mother read : 

" Dear Baby: 

You can do something quite as well as the 
big boys and girls. You can make book- 
markers! You can cut strips of pretty paper 
and fold them together to look like ribbons. 
Paste pretty pictures on them and snip the 
ends in two points. I'm sure Mother would 
like a book-marker and Henry and Jimsi 
could use some for school-books. 

You try to make them. I think Jimsi'll 
help you. 

Your loving friend, 

Crow. 
P. S. 

There is a book-marker I made. It is with 
the books to be covered on the shelf of The 
Happy Shop and it is for you" 

Well, of course, Katherine wanted the book- 
marker and, of course, Henry, being the man 
of the family, ran to get it for Mother. It 
was indeed a pretty book-marker and quite 
easy enough for a baby like Katherine to cut. 
It looked like a ribbon. All one needed to do 
to make a book-marker like it was to cut a 
strip of paper and fold it and paste it together 
tight. Then a picture was pasted in the center 



138 THE GOOD CROW'S HAPPY SHOP 

on one side to ornament it and the ends of the 
paper were snipped evenly in points. Aunt 
Phoebe admired crow's handiwork, and after 
it had been passed all around the table, and 
after it had come back to Katherine again, 
they asked Jimsi to read her crow letter. 

" Dear Little Girl: 

Hello: 

I thought of something nice that you can 
do with your paper from the Magic Book. 
You can frame pictures. It is easy to frame 
pictures, if you use glue and have a sheet of 
glass to fit your picture. This is the way to 
doit. 

Put the glass with your picture under it 
right on top of your Magic Book. Have the 
glass on the white side of the wall paper. 
Draw all around the edge of the flat glass 
with a pencil. This will show you the size 
to cut from your sheet of wall paper. You 
must add a half-inch or full inch to each 
side of this measurement before cutting out. 

When this is done, fold the sides of the 
paper over your glass. Begin with the long 
sides. Glue these to the glass and then fold 
over the short ends of the paper the same 
way. Put some weight on top of the picture 
and let all dry carefully. See that all glue 
is used so sparingly that it does not muss 
the pretty paper. 

After the paper is dried to the glass, paste 
on each corner some small flower or rosebud 
to finish and cover the corner folds. Paste 
a hanger at the back of the picture and you 
are through with your work. You can 



HOW THE MAGIC BOOK HELPED 139 

frame pictures for your own room this way 
and you can make dainty little gifts this 
way too. Save all the pretty pictures you 
find to use like this. 

I won't tell you any more today. I'm 
telling you a great deal because, you see, I 
want you and Henry and Katherine to enjoy 
the Magic Book as much as possible before 
train-time. 

Your own 

Caw Caw." 

That, too, was voted a good idea. Henry 
raced to the table in The Happy Shop to see 
what was there and he found a pretty picture 
framed just like that. Oh, it really was 
lovely, it was! 

But the crow left no more letters for any- 
body that lunch time, even though Aunt 
Phoebe made believe that she thought she 
ought to have one. She even got up and 
looked under her chair and made everybody 
laugh by saying in such a disappointed way. 
"Oh, Caw Caw must have forgotten me!" 
But right then and there, Jimsi remembered 
that she had been trusted with a crow letter 
to Aunt Phoebe — the one from Joyce in the 
little basket. She had left it by mistake in 
her room when she hurried down to lunch 
after brushing her hair. 

"Please, Aunt Phoebe," she begged. "I 



140 THE GOOD CROW'S HAPPY SHOP 

know he didn't forget you. May I go and 
look—" 

Mother must have understood for she let 
Jimsi go to hunt. And then when she came 
flying back, how Mother did enjoy the joke. 
And Aunt Phoebe did like her basket and her 
letter. 

As there was no more horrid nap -time now 
after lunch, the children ran over to spend the 
whole long afternoon with the little lame girl. 
Henry carried his books to be covered; Jimsi 
carried her picture to show; Katherine took 
the book-marker. It was a jolly party that 
filed home about five o'clock after all the fun. 
Henry had to give crow calls all the way home 
up the street to Aunt Phoebe's house. 

And then — Oh, dear! All too soon came 
train time. And Mother, Henry and Kath- 
erine were gone. 

As Aunt Phoebe bent over Jimsi's pillow 
that night, she whispered, "Feel under it, 
dearie." And right under the pillow was — 
what do you think? You couldn't guess. It 
was a candy kiss, and it said, "Good night, 
Crow." 



CHAPTER XII 

The Gifts That Were Made in 
The Happy Shop 

THE next day was Sunday. In the after- 
noon Jimsi ran over to see the little 
lame girl. They did not play with the 
Magic Book. The little lame girl did not feel 
very well. She was reading in her chair that 
stood in the bow-window. She was very glad 
to see Jimsi for, somehow, she had been feel- 
ing very lonely and wishing that she were like 
other children who could run about and do the 
many active things that were denied her. 

"I'm cross today, Jimsi," she greeted. "I'm 
discontented. Once in a while it just conies 
over me that I can't do what other girls can. 
I have to stay here all day — and, Oh! I do 
want to run about so! I wish I weren't lame!" 

Jimsi stood beside the chair. She wished 
that she could think of something comforting 
to say. It surely was very hard to keep cheer- 
ful all the time, if one couldn't run about and 
play like other children. Jimsi knew well 



142 THE GOOD CROW'S HAPPY SHOP 

what it felt like to be sick. "But — but — you'll 
get well some time," she said. 

The little lame girl sighed. "I don't know. 
Not unless there's money for me to go to the 
hospital and have the doctor do what ought 
to be done. He said I could walk, maybe, if it 
was done. He wasn't sure — " 

"But why can't you go and have it done, 
then?" demanded Jimsi, bringing an arm over 
the little lame girl's shoulder. "Surely, it's 
very important that you get well. Would it 
cost very much money?" 

"I don't know how much," said Joyce. "It's 
more than Mother can pay. She's trying hard 
to put the sewing money aside for it, but that 
doesn't pay very well and it's slow. I oughtn't 
to complain and I oughtn't to talk about it at 
all — I hardly ever do, but when I saw you and 
Henry and Katherine yesterday having such 
a lark, I just longed to, too." 

"Oh, there ought to be some way to make 
the money," declared Jimsi. "There really 
ought! You ought to be well right away. I 
wish I could help ! But girls can't earn money 
doing the things that boys can. Henry can 
shovel snow and do carpentry and he earns 
money. Somehow, I never can find any way 



THE GIFTS THEY MADE 113 

to earn money. If I could, I'd put it all in a 
bank and give it to you to help. It mightn't 
be much, but I wish I could do it." 

The little lame girl's mouth quivered. 
"Maybe some time I will be well," she said 
bravely. "I'm going to forget all about it and 
try to think of something else. That's why I 
like to keep busy doing things. It keeps me 
from thinking about being lame. I never say 
anything to Mother about it. I don't believe 
Miss Phoebe or anybody knows — " 

"But I'm glad you told me," Jimsi sighed 
sympathetically. "It helps to talk things over 
with a friend, I think. It always helps me to 
talk worries over with Aunt Phoebe. If you'd 
let me tell Aunt Phoebe about this, Joyce, I 
think she'd know exactly what to do." 

"I don't know," brooded the little lame girl. 

"Please," urged Jimsi. "I'm sure that 
Aunt Phoebe would know how to get the 
money. Maybe she'd just sit right down and 
write a story and sell it and send you right 
off to be all fixed up new by the doctor. 
Think! Why, you could come to visit me in 
the city then and I'd show you all my play- 
things. We'd ride my bicycle and take walks 
in the park. Oh, we'd have ever so much fun !" 



144 THE GOOD CROW'S HAPPY SHOP 

The little lame girl smiled. "Wouldn't it 
be splendid?" 

"You'll let me tell Aunt Phoebe?" 

"Why, I wouldn't let her send me to the 
hospital! Mother wouldn't let her. Mother 
is going to send me some day when she has the 
money. She's putting it aside now, but I 
think it'll be at least two years more before 
there's enough — " 

"Aunt Phoebe could write a story just as 
easy as not. She'd help in a jiffy, if you let 
me tell her. Then you could go right away 
now!" 

"Well, I wouldn't go that way," protested 
Joyce. "I'd — oh, I'd never take any money 
like that! I'd want to earn it myself — I wish 
I could. I help with the sewing sometimes, 
but mostly, Mother uses the machine." 

"I wish I were rich — you'd have to take the 
money if I gave it to you! I'd make you! I 
wish I could make things to sell. Don't you 
suppose — " Jimsi broke off suddenly. "Why 
couldn't we sell some of the things we've found 
in Aunt Phoebe's wall-paper sample book?" 

"What?" inquired Joyce. "The paper dolls 
and the toy furniture wouldn't sell, would 
they? And the valentines aren't sellable. 



THE GIFTS THEY MADE 145 

The embroidery patterns and stencils wouldn't 
— it's the splendid fun of making something 
out of nothing and finding the nothing is 
something that is jolly to play with. That's 
why the Magic Book is so nice. It doesn't cost 
a single cent and yet it is full of play that is 
nicer than shop-made games and toys." 

"I know," Jimsi agreed. "And one can 
buy scrapbooks in shops, too. I don't believe 
that the butterflies and the birds and May 
baskets would sell except for very little, — 
maybe a penny or so." 

"What else is there that we've made from 
the Magic Book?" 

"Um-m-m," mused Jimsi. "Let's see — 
there's the picture-framing, and Katherine's 
book-markers, and the covers for books — oh, 
yes! And there are the pin-wheels, but they 
aren't sellable any of them — " 

"Maybe we could invent something new," 
Joyce suggested. "People do, you know. 
Ever so many times, they make money out of 
very little things that seem at first too small 
to count for much. I've been thinking of some 
new things to make. I was going to make one 
for Daddy's Christmas. Poor Daddy! He 
never says anything about me, but I know he 



146 THE GOOD CROW'S HAPPY SHOP 

thinks about it ever so much. He wants me 
to go to the hospital, too. But he won't let me 
go till we can pay for it, he says." 

"What were you going to make for Christ- 
mas?" asked Jimsi. "I thought of Christmas 
presents I could make with the paper from my 
Magic Book, too. Mine is stencil work. I 
was going to stencil a box of letter-paper for 
Aunt Phoebe and some correspondence cards 
for Mother. I could use the stencils — the 
small ones — that way." 

"That's good," agreed Joyce. "I thought 
of making blotter-pads by covering the bottom 
of a cardboard box with wall paper, after its 
rims were cut off. Then I'd take wall paper 
and make little corner pieces and fit them at 
each corner of my blotter. I'd glue the corner 
pieces to the cardboard that was covered with 
the wall paper and that would make a blotter- 
pad for Daddy's desk in the other room where 
he works nights." 

"You'd have to line the corner pieces unless 
you used very heavy paper," Jimsi added. 
"You'd have to make the blotter-pads stick 
with glue. Paste isn't strong enough." 

"Oh, I know how I'd do it," Joyce pro- 
tested. "It's perfectly simple. The blotter 



THE GIFTS THEY MADE 



14" 



could be taken out and a new one put in, you 
know. The corner pieces would be turned in 
underneath and glued to the cardboard cov- 




Some Desk Fittings That Were Made with Wall Paper 



ered with the fancy wall paper. It would be 
pretty. Let's try it tomorrow." 

"Yes, let's!" 

"And I thought of another thing. I was 
going to make it for Miss Phoebe. It is a 
case for blotters. I'd make it by cutting a 
strip of flowered paper or a border pattern of 



148 THE GOOD CROW'S HAPPY SHOP 

wall paper to fit and fold around the small 
blotters you buy twelve for five cents. I'd 
glue the ends underneath and cut the pattern 
out. It would make a pretty way to give a 
present. And, I suppose, I might stencil my 
blotters in water-color paint." 

"Urn-hum," nodded Jimsi reflectively. "I 
could make that kind of a present for my 
teacher at school, maybe. You wouldn't mind, 
if I used your idea?" 

"Of course! Why, use it," urged Joyce. 
"And there's still another thing I thought of 
doing. I was going to cut the outline of a 
leaf from green paper and tie pen-wiper things 
to the back. I have some cloth I could use — 
linen. If one had chamois, that would be bet- 
ter. It would be tied at the back of the leaf 
and cut the same shape. Three pen-wiper 
layers of cloth or chamois would be enough. 
I'd use a little red ribbon to tie all together at 
the stem of the leaf." 

"That's good, too," declared Jimsi. "I'm 
going to ask Aunt Phoebe tonight if she thinks 
we could sell some of these, if we made ever 
so many and took them to a shop. Maybe the 
shopkeepers would buy them." 



THE GIFTS THEY MADE 149 

"I wish they would!" 

"Dear me! Don't I wish so!" 

Both little girls smiled into each other's eyes. 
"I'll miss you dreadfully when I go home," 
sighed Jimsi. 

"And I'll miss you!" 

"Let's think of something else we can sell." 

"Let's see." 

They thought and thought. It seemed very 
hard to think of something that would sell. 

"There's a little clock made of cardboard 
on Father's desk," finally Jimsi announced. 
"I think you and I could copy it. Father 
turns the hands around. They are on a pivot 
and they point to numbers that are on the dial 
of a white clock-face. Father fixes the hour 
with the clock-hands. He uses it when he 
leaves his office. The clock tells when he will 
be back. Mother said she would like one once. 
I thought I could copy Father's. I thought 
of using fancy paper pasted over a square of 
cardboard at the back. There would need to 
be an easel back so the card would stand. A 
strip of cardboard covered with the same sort 
of wall paper could be glued at the back and 
left loose lower down to rest the card upright. 



150 THE GOOD CROW'S HAPPY SHOP 

The clock face would be cut out of pad paper 
and numbers could be cut from a calendar to 
paste on the dial — all around the edge. A 
round-sided paper-fastener would answer for 
a pivot to hold the clock hands in place. The 
hands one could cut from cardboard. They 
might be colored to make them stand out 
clearly." 

"I see," the little lame girl answered. "I'll 
make one, too. Perhaps my daddy would use 
one." 

"I'll ask Aunt Phoebe if she thinks any of 
them will sell. I'll ask her tonight. Perhaps 
we could make the two years shorter a little/' 
sighed Jimsi. 

"Maybe we will make a fortune," laughed 
Joyce. "Anyhow, Jimsi dear, I'm not going 
to be discontented any more. I'm not going 
to have any more blue days. I'm going to be 
plucky, I am. Don't you ever dare to mention 
it again." 

"All right," Jimsi agreed, "not unless we do 
make the fortune," she laughed. 

"Which we won't," smiled Joyce. 

The twilight deepened into dusk and the 
firelight lit the room. "Oh, I must run," de- 
clared Jimsi. "Aunt Phoebe told me to come 



THE GIFTS THEY MADE 151 

home before dark. "Good-bye, dear. I'm 
going to make a fortune somehow — see if I 
don't, and then you'll go to the hospital and 
get well right off fast. Let's pretend we're 
ffoinff to make a fortune anyhow." 



CHAPTER XIII 

The Christmas-Tree That They 
Made in the Happy Shop 

THAT night after tea, Aunt Phoebe 
curled up on the lounge. "Jimsi," she 
said, "I don't feel like reading and I 
don't know what to do. Come talk to me. 
What's the matter, dear? You hardly said a 
thing all through supper. Don't you feel 
well?" 

"Oh, I'm all right, Aunt Phoebe," Jimsi 
declared. "But I was thinking — I want to 
make some money dreadfully!" 

"What for?" Aunt Phoebe drew Jimsi 
onto the couch beside her. "Is it for Christ- 
mas, Honey?" she asked. 

Jimsi shook her head from side to side 
slowly. "Of course, I do want money for 
Christmas presents, but what I want it most 
for is to give it to somebody. I want to know 
if you think, Aunt Phoebe, that I could earn 
some money some way. Do you think that I 
could make things to sell if I made blotter- 



154 THE GOOD CROW'S HAPPY SHOP 

pads and little presents and took them to a 
shop ? Would the shopkeeper buy them to sell 
at Christmas, do you think?" 

"I don't believe so, Honey. You'd not 
make much money that way, I'm afraid." 
Aunt Phoebe smiled. "It wouldn't be a for- 
tune, dear. Shopkeepers would not pay little 
girls much. The things you make are lovely, 
I know, but — you see, shopkeepers don't buy 
that way." 

There was silence. 

"What is it you want the money for?" asked 
Aunt Phoebe suddenly. "Maybe I could 
help." 

"I think you could, Aunt Phoebe. I want 
it to help somebody who is sick." 

"It's the little lame girl, Joyce, isn't it? — 
I didn't know they needed money. Of course, 
dear, I knew they were not rich, but riches 
do not always mean money. I know very 
many poor persons who are rich because they 
have the things many rich persons do not have. 
I mean love and hope and happiness and work. 
Riches are not always money, Jimsi. I think 
you're a rich little girl because you are so re- 
sourceful. You have such happy clever ways 
of making things. The crow's magic book 



THE CHRISTMAS-TREE 155 

lias been very magic indeed with the things 
yon and Joyce have made. I've been thinking 
about it all as I watched you. There's one 
thing you've made that is splendid. It's the 
motion picture play screen." 

"Crow told Joyce about it," said Jimsi. 
"Yes, it's ever so much fun. Do you think 
maybe we could sell that? I could make them, 
ever so many of them. I want the little lame 
girl to go to the hospital and be made well, 
Aunt Phoebe. She can't go till the money is in 
the bank, and it may be two whole years — " 

Aunt Phoebe sat upright with a jump. 
"You don't mean that Joyce could get well if 
there was money to send her where she could 
have treatment, do you?" 

A hot, little tear crept from Jimsi 's eye and 
fell on Aunt Phoebe's hand that clasped hers 
in her lap. 

"Why, I'll send Joyce," she cried. "They 
never told me!" 

"No, no, you can't," declared Jimsi. 
"Joyce wouldn't let you. She wouldn't go 
that way, she says. She wants to help her 
mother earn the money. Her father can't put 
much aside. They need it. That's why I 
wanted to help." 



156 THE GOOD CROW'S HAPPY SHOP 

"Nonsense," declared Aunt Phoebe. 
"They'll have to take it from me." 

Again there was silence. Of course, Aunt 
Phoebe knew Jimsi was right. They would 
rather wait than borrow. It was too much for 
a gift. 

Aunt Phoebe got up and walked restlessly 
about the room. She did that sometimes when 
she was writing stories, when the story 
stopped and wanted to go another way than 
the way Aunt Phoebe planned. Jimsi often 
laughed about this habit in fun. It did seem 
so odd that the story people wouldn't do as 
Aunt Phoebe wanted them. Aunt Phoebe 
said it helped her think to walk about like that. 
Jimsi sat on the couch and watched her 
silently. 

"There must be a way," Aunt Phoebe kept 
saying. Then she would walk some more. 
Once she went right out of the room and Jimsi 
heard her telephoning. Then she came back 
and sat down in the rocking chair. "Run and 
bring me the shadow play that you made from 
the Magic Book, Jimsi," she asked. "I want 
to look at it again. I know somebody who 
wants to see it. Jimsi, don't get your hopes 
up too high — maybe the man will buy the idea 



THE CHRISTMAS-TREE 



157 



and put it on the market as a children's toy. 
What do you say to that? If you'll give me 
the toy you made, I'll wrap it up and we'll 
send it on for him to look it over. Don't tell 
Joyce. I think Joyce can patent it." 

Well, if Jimsi didn't fly! Into The Happy 
Shop she rushed and came back panting. The 
crow's motion picture play was all there. 
Aunt Phoebe had paper. She did it up neatly, 
addressed and sealed it. Then she went to 
her desk and began to write a letter to send 
with it. She wrote for quite a while. When 
the letter was done, it was bed-time. Jimsi 
kissed her and went upstairs. 

The next morning there was a storm — oh, 
how it did snow and blow! Aunt Phoebe de- 
clared that Jimsi couldn't go out — no, not 
even as far as the little lame girl's house. She 
sent her to play in The Happy Shop and 
promised to bring her something nice from 
crow, if she was good. Aunt Phoebe herself 
put on her cloak and hat and furs. She said 
she might not be home till four o'clock as there 
was business to do in the city even when it was 
stormy. She told the kitchen maid what to 
get for Jimsi's lunch and Jimsi went as far as 
the front door to wave her off. Aunt Phoebe 



1"> S THE GOOD (How's HAPPY shop 

had — why she had that package of the motion 
picture play of crow's under her cloak. Jimsi 
saw it as Aunt Phoebe turned to wave. There 
Mas enough showing under Aunt Phoebe's 
arm for Jimsi to recognize the parcel, Her 
heart gave a big j ump ; that must be the busi- 
ness Aunt Phoebe intended to do in the city 
on a stormy day. 

Jimsi watched Aunt Phoebe plod through 
the snow and up the street out of sight. Then 
she turned and went toward The Happy 
Shop. It was going to be a very lonely day 
all alone. But hardly had she opened the 
glass door when she saw that Aunt Phoebe 
had put the Good Crow on the shelf today, 
and in his bill he held a letter. 

Jimsi took the crow down and removed the 
letter. She tore the wee envelope open and 
read : 

" Dearest Jimsi: 

I am right here for company to-day while 
Aunt Phoebe is awaj^. I'm giving you a 
letter myself because, you know, a play crow 
has to write letters. 

Look in the corner of The Happy Shop and 
see the nice thing I brought. It's a little 
Christmas-tree and you can cut decorations 
for it from your Magic Book. I think you 



THE CHRISTMAS-TREE 159 

must have learned how to make chains for 
Christmas-trees: just cut strips of colored 
wall paper and make links by pasting the 
ends of one strip at a time together. Slip 
the next strip through the first link and 
paste. You go on and on making a chain 
that will circle the tree. 

Cornucopias may be made by rolling a 
triangular piece of wall paper together like 
a cone, closed at the bottom. You can line 
each with a plain paper of contrasting 
shade. 

Christmas-tree pendants may be made by 
cutting round and diamond pointed designs 
out and sewing tinsel about their edge. 

A star may be made for the top of the 
Christmas-tree. Cut it from yellow paper. 
Flowers cut from wall paper may be pinned 
on the tree to decorate it too. And you can 
make small lanterns to hang by raffia ex- 
actly as kindergarten children make them: 
just double a square of paper end to end. 
Cut snips through the centre with scissors 
and unfold. Paste the cut paper together 
to make a hollow roll and the cut places will 
make it look like a lantern. 

Try to make Christmas cards too. A tree 
is easily cut out by cutting a green triangle. 
At its base, make a small brown trunk and 
cut a red pot for the tree. Mount the tree 
on a square of cardboard and letter the card 
with crayon. 

A card with a Christmas candle may be 
made by cutting out a colored candle-stick 
from bright wall paper and adding a paper 
candle at the top. 

Here's enough to fill all your whole long 



100 mi: good crow's BAPPY SHOP 

day alone. Sen 1 what you can do by the time 
Aunt Phoebe gets back! 

Crow. 

P. S. 

How about taking this tree to Joyce for 
her ( Jhristmas presenj ? " 

Jimsi gathered all the precious sheets of 
crow's letter together and looked for the 
tree. It was almost hidden from sight back 
of some palms. It was a dear little tree. 
She put it upon the table of The Happy 
Shop and began to snip industriously with 
her scissors. The Magic Book was indeed 
thin, but there was more than enough 
to make all the Christmas tree decora- 
tions and the Christmas cards. Jimsi began 
with the chain. She made it very long and 
pretty, pink, blue, green, red, yellow — and 
again she repeated the order of colors pink, 
blue, green, red, yellow. The chain was very 
lovely when done and she hung it about the 
tree in long festoons. 

After this she made two cornucopias that 
were big enough to hold candy, and some lit- 
tle ones beside. And she cut the flowers out 
and pinned them to branches, too. And she 
made lanterns, and a big, big star, and some 




The Christmas-Tree Decorations That Were Made of 
Wall Paper 



162 THE GOOD CROW ; S HAPPY SHOP 

pendants. Crow had thoughtfully put a long 
roll of tinsel in the drawer of The Happy 
Shop table and Jimsi made loops of the tinsel 
to hang them on the tree. She had to sew 
these on with a needle threaded with fine cot- 
ton that was from Aunt Phoebe's work- 
basket. 

The tree was half trimmed at luncheon time 
and the little maid who worked for Aunt 
Phoebe didn't put the lunch on the big, lonely 
dining-room table. She brought it to The 
Happy Shop. 

Just as Jimsi was swallowing the last 
mouthful of apple sauce and was going to take 
a bite of cake, the telephone bell rang in the 
study. Jimsi hopped up to answer it. 

"Hello!" came the voice over the telephone. 
"Is that you, Jimsi?" 

Why, it was Aunt Phoebe's voice! And 
Aunt Phoebe's voice sounded very far away 
at first. It grew more clear. "Jimsi," it said, 
"I can't wait to tell you, so I called you up by 
long distance. The firm that makes toys 
wants to buy the idea of the motion picture 
shadow play. They will pay Joyce a whole 
hundred dollars for the model that she made, 
and give her royalty after it is published. 



THE CHRISTMAS-TREE 163 

Royalty means that Joyce will get money on 
every toy sold. They are a big firm, and there 
will be more than enough money for the hos- 
pital. I'll tell yon more when I get home. 
Are yon all right? It can be patented." 

"Oh! Oh," gasped Jimsi. "Oh, I'm so 
happy! Yes, Aunt Phoebe, I am all right. 
Everything's all right!" 

Then the wire buzzed. Aunt Phoebe had 
gone. 

That time, Jimsi couldn't go back to work. 
She walked around just as excitedly as Aunt 
Phoebe did when the story wouldn't go the 
way she wanted it to go. She could think of 
nothing but how glad Joyce would be. How 
she longed to put on hat and cloak and run 
over there. But she didn't. She had promised 
Aunt Phoebe to stay indoors. 

It seemed to Jimsi that the afternoon hours 
would never pass. She was as restless as a 
caged lion. She couldn't work on Christmas- 
tree decorations — and then she remembered 
that the tree was to be finished by the time 
Aunt Phoebe came home. She started fever- 
ishly to make more things. She worked very 
hard. Indeed, she worked so hard that the 
tree grew to be wonderfully pretty. It needed 



164 THE GOOD CROW'S HAPPY SHOP 

only candles to make it quite complete. Then 
Jimsi had an idea. "I'll tie a crow letter on 
the tree," she thought, "and the crow letter 
shall tell Joyce all about everything. But 
Aunt Phoebe must write that crow letter 
herself." 

She decided to try making Christmas cards 
and blotter-cases. She was engrossed in these 
when there came a stamping of feet on the 
doorstep outside and the front door-bell rang. 
It was Aunt Phoebe all covered with snow 
and beaming from under a snow-covered hat. 
Hooray ! 

Oh, wasn't it good to have her back, and 
wasn't it jolly to be able to find out all about 
the real fortune that was going to come to the 
little lame girl! 

"It's too good to be true," she laughed. 
"Oh, tell me all about it right away, Aunt 
Phoebe, please!" 

So Aunt Phoebe, as soon as she could fling 
off her very wet things, sat down by the fire 
and told Jimsi the whole long story of how she 
had taken the model and found the toy mer- 
chant who published games and toys, and how 
he had looked it all over and tried it and said it 
was good — yes, very good, and so good that it 



THE CHRISTMAS-TREE 



165 



did interest him. She told how he had carried 
the toy away to show to other members of the 
firm, and how she had had to wait what seemed 
hours and hours before he came back to say 
that they thought it an excellent thing and 
wanted to publish it. 

At first, so she said, he had not wanted to 
pay any advance for it — that meant the hun- 
dred dollars, Aunt Phoebe said. But she had 
insisted, and he had agreed. 

There was something Aunt Phoebe called 
a contract. This was going to be sent and 
signed by Joyce's father. It was a written 
agreement of terms of sale. 

"That's all," smiled Aunt Phoebe, finishing 
by giving Jimsi's hand a hard and happy 
squeeze. "Now, let's see the tree crow gave 
you." 

Jimsi took Aunt Phoebe to The Happy 
Shop where the little tree stood. Oh, it really 
did look very, very charming. Aunt Phoebe 
said so, and the little maid who came to an- 
nounce dinner said so, and even Jimsi who had 
done it all herself said so. I think crow would 
have said so, too, if crow could have talked 
really and truly. 

After dinner, Aunt Phoebe wrote the crow 



166 THE GOOD CROW'S HAPPY SHOP 

letter that told about the hundred dollars and 
the contract and all the other things. She 
wrote it on her typewriter because she wanted 
it very clear and easy to understand. She told 
how Jimsi had wanted to have Joyce get well 
so that she would not be a little lame girl any 
longer, and she told how she herself had sud- 
denly thought of the value of the original toy 
made with shadow pictures. She said she had 
taken it to the city and that everything was all 
right. It only remained to hurry Joyce right 
off as fast as she could go. Aunt Phoebe 
didn't see why Joyce couldn't go day after 
tomorrow. That was the time she and Jimsi 
were going to the city and they could take 
Joyce to the hospital in a motor car. 

They tied the note to the top of the tree with 
a bright, red ribbon. It had to be folded and 
folded to fit into a crow envelope. Oh, the 
envelope was quite bulky and fat, I assure 
you. 

Then they both went upstairs to bed to 
dream of the Good Crow who had first sug- 
gested the play of the motion picture screen. 
Ah, yes ! It was the Good Crow who belonged 
to Aunt Phoebe — he had done it all. 

As for the little lame girl, why, of course, 



THE CHRISTMAS-TREE 167 

she went with Jimsi and Aunt Phoebe. Of 
course she got well! And Jimsi always de- 
clared afterward that the Good Crow was the 
very best crow there was, and that there never 
was a better real aunt than Aunt Phoebe who 
was a play aunt — and that if it hadn't been 
for The Happy Shop and Aunt Phoebe's 
Good Crow hundreds of happy children who 
played the shadow motion picture fun would 
have missed half the joy of their lives! 



